News

Good evening, folks.

Registration is open for the Spring 2026 FPAW Meeting at the meeting webpage here. Have we ever mentioned that registration is free?

You can use the Click for Registration button near the top of the page to bypass the agenda and go straight to the registration form, or scroll through the agenda (which we would suggest you do if you haven't done so previously) until you reach the registration form directly beneath it.

There is a new question in the registration form concerning sharing your email with other FPAW meeting registrants who are willing to share the same information, probably via an emailed spreadsheet after the conclusion of the meeting.

Finally, we had a great meeting today with a key member of the FAA Safety Team (FAAST). We are fairly confident that FPAW will be able to offer Wings Credits to FPAW meeting participants sometime in the not-too-distant future (and maybe, if everything goes well, in time for the Spring meeting)! We're really excited about this opportunity to potentially expand our GA participant numbers.

Matt Fronzak and Nathan Polderman
FPAW Co-Chairs

FPAW colleagues,

We wanted to share with you an op-ed in support of NCAR that our friends at Campbell Scientific recently published in the Deseret News (Utah's largest newspaper). Matt and I worked with FPAW member and Campbell Scientific Director of Business Development, Jesse Heers, to provide some aviation-specific insights which they were able to incorporate into the article.

https://www.deseret.com/opinion/2026/02/15/protect-national-center-for-atmospheric-research-utah-safety/

We also met recently with External Engagement / Media Relations folks at UCAR and NCAR to strategize how best to advocate for continued NCAR support from the broader FPAW community. We are in the process of compiling some additional resources, which we look forward to sharing with you all in a future newsletter very soon.

Thanks,

Nathan Polderman and Matt Fronzak

FPAW Co-Chairs

Good evening, aviation weather enthusiasts.

Nathan and I are pleased to advise that the Draft High Level Agenda for the Spring 2026 FPAW Meeting is now available on the meeting web page. Please spend a few minutes reviewing the meeting topics, and start making plans to join us IN-PERSON in Stillwater, OK in April. 

We'll be adding details to the meeting itself, and to meeting logistics, in the coming days. Meanwhile, if you think you have what it takes to add value as a presenter or panelist, reach out to the Session Leads/Co-Leads and let them know that you're ready to take the discussion to a whole new level.

All the best,

Matt Fronzak and Nathan Polderman
FPAW Co-Chairs

To our Friends and Partners in Aviation Weather,

Nathan and I wish you the Happiest of Holidays on this, the evening of December 25, 2025. We trust the weather has fully cooperated with and enhanced today's activities for you, regardless of where you are (fat chance, we know, but it was a lovely mid-70s day under partly cloudy skies in central GA, where one of us is right now).

We'll be pushing out our first Spring 2026 FPAW Meeting agenda in the next few weeks. We know it's a long way off but, believe us, you'll really want to be thinking about making plans to travel to Stillwater, OK for the April 21-23, 2026 meeting.

In the meantime, we hope you have a chance to recharge and reset over the next 1-2 weeks, and jump straight into 2026 with vim and vigor!

Matt Fronzak and Nathan Polderman
FPAW Co-Chairs

Hello, fellow aviation weather enthusiasts.

This week, the federal Office of Management and Budget announced plans to dismantle the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR). There are lots of comments we could make right now, but few of them would be either appropriate or fitting for this newsletter.

What we will do, however, is duplicate the contents of a forwarded AGU email one of us received just a few minutes ago, and ask every one of you to do what the email suggests, via either of the two blue hyperlinks (both go to the same AGU web page), as we'll be doing as soon as we finish this newsletter.

Let's add the voices of FPAW's 600+ members to the 2,600 folks who have already weighed in with their congressional representatives!

Matt Fronzak and Nathan Polderman
FPAW Co-Chairs

*********************************

Connect with Your Legislators

The Earth and Space Science community heard NCAR was in trouble and showed up en masse.
Your effort has already made an impact. Members of Congress are working on language to
protect NCAR in Fiscal Year 2026 Appropriations and Colorado Representatives Neguse and 
Herd are circulating a bipartisan, bicameral Dear Colleague Letter to show support for NCAR.
Your members of Congress can show their support for NCAR by signing onto this letter and
voting for NCAR funding in appropriations.

Even if you've already reached out, you can call and email again, or share with your colleagues
and institutions.

Contact Congress Now

More than 2600 scientists have contacted Congress to save NCAR. Let's keep up the momentum!

Good evening, aviation weather wonks.

Nathan and I are particularly pleased to let you know that (almost) every last bit of Fall 2025 FPAW Meeting material (biographies, presentations, meeting recordings and pictures) has made its way to the meeting website. One Day 3 video recording, and a batch of curated pictures, remain to be uploaded. And, then, we're done!!

Of more importance, the FPAW Steering Committee met today and finalized a number of Spring 2026 FPAW Meeting items. We will be updating that meeting website in the very near future, so check back in regularly.

Matt Fronzak and Nathan Polderman
FPAW Co-Chairs

Good Friday evening to you all.

The sharp-eyed among you (we're looking at you, John Kosak) will have noticed that, contrary to what was briefed at last month's Fall 2025 FPAW Meeting, the location of the Spring 2026 FPAW Meeting, as stated on the FPAW website, has evolved.

Nathan and I are pleased to let you know that, along with our host, Dr. Gus de Azevedo, we've confirmed the location (Oklahoma State University Main Campus, Stillwater, OK) and committed to the previously-stated dates (April 21-23, 2026) for the next FPAW meeting. Moreover, during a marathon (2-hour) meeting today, we made significant progress on the development of a program that is HIGHLY relevant to the aviation weather community AND the meeting location, along with the identification of target session leads. Speaking only for myself, but confident that this sentiment is shared by Nathan and Gus, I am VERY happy with the progress we made today!

In the coming weeks, we'll be sharing details of the program, the session leads and, for those of you who attended last month's meeting to the bitter end, the sequence of events that led to the change in venue for the upcoming meeting. 

So, stay tuned, and start thinking about attending the Spring 2026 FPAW Meeting, either virtually or, preferably, in person!

Matt Fronzak
Nathan Polderman
FPAW Co-Chairs

Good evening, aviation weather experts.

We wanted to let you know that progress has been made on the meeting content contained on the Fall 2025 FPAW Meeting web site.

As you are all aware, our intended presenters, panelists and moderators changed in the days leading up to the meeting, due to the government shutdown. The meeting Agenda and Biographies documents have been amended to reflect reality, as best we recollect.

We've also added very lightly edited Meeting Notes Parts 1 and 2 generated by MS Teams for Day 1, and hope to get similar Meeting Notes up for Days 2 and 3 shortly. In addition, we've recreated the Meeting Chat Log for Day 1 (an astonishingly manual process in MS Teams - Zoom anyone?), and intend to get the Chat Logs for the final two days of the meetings posted very soon.

Finally, we are working to make the video recordings of the meetings available in the coming days, through a TBD process. Stay tuned for more info.

Matt Fronzak
Nathan Polderman
FPAW Co-Chairs