Aviation Weather Center

The Aviation Weather Center (AWC) located in Kansas City, Missouri, issues warnings, forecasts, and analyses of hazardous weather for aviation. Staffed by 76 personnel, the center develops warnings of hazardous weather for aircraft in flight and forecasts of weather conditions for the next two to four days that will impact both domestic and international aviation. The Center leads the collaborative effort to develop a forecast of expected convective events for the entire country every two hours used by FAA to manage aviation traffic flows across the country.

The AWC also maintains a six-person unit assigned to the FAA National Command Center located in Warrenton, VA that provides impact-based decision support services (IDSS) directly to FAA National Operations Managers (NOMs). Additionally, the AWC is one of two global World Area Forecast Centers designated by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), and hosts the NWS Aviation Weather Testbed (AWT) which acts as a catalyst to accelerate aviation weather research into sustained and supportable operations.