Providing detailed weather forecasts in Iraq isn’t as predictable as you may think

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Air Force Staff Sgt. Chris Morales, 27, of Fort Walton Beach, Fla., with the 18th Expeditionary Weather Squadron, enters details about Thursday’s weather into a computer form after doing an hourly check of the conditions in Taji, Iraq.


Providing detailed weather forecasts in Iraq isn’t as predictable as you may think
By James Warden, Stars and Stripes
Mideast edition, Sunday, February 24, 2008

TAJI, Iraq — Being an Air Force weather forecaster in Iraq can have its difficult times.

Sure, the weather is consistent most months of the year here, and the Air Force tours are a fraction of the length of the Army’s deployments (which soldiers constantly remind the airmen).

But you have to hear the same joke repeatedly from the soldiers who outnumber you: “Let me guess, it’s going to be hot and dusty today.”

“You get to be a little thick-skinned,” acknowledged Capt. Gregory Martin, the officer in charge of the six-man Taji weather unit.

Actually, being an Air Force meteorologist is more involved than predicting yet another day of hot weather in a country that bakes all summer. Pilots, controllers of unmanned aerial vehicles and others in the air rely on detailed conditions at different altitudes to do their job.


Rest of article at: http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=52765