Airports and airlines can experience some of the most severe types of weather conditions during the winter season. Winter weather can also adversely affect flight operations as well as flight safety. Severe winter weather, such as freezing rain and snow, is one of the most difficult types of weather phenomenon to predict and prepare for from an airport and airline operations standpoint. Freezing rain and snow affects not only the airport runways, taxiways and aircraft, but the entire airport infrastructure as well, with the potential of incurring long and costly delays. The Weather Support to Deicing Decision Making (WSDDM) system provides help in managing airport ground operations during severe winter weather. WSDDM is a winter weather nowcasting tool that provides real-time meteorological and snow gauge data in a simple, concise, easy to understand nonmeteorological format.
