Editor's note: This story was originally published by KNBA and is republished here with permission.
Last year, a new pot of federal funding promised to bring more than 160 new weather stations to Alaska to make flying safer in a state that's long seen a high rate of deadly plane crashes.
Local aviation experts and air carriers said they expect to see some of the new weather stations come online this summer or fall. But the Federal Aviation Administration has not said where those stations will be.
Dan Knesek, the president of Grant Aviation, said that information would help companies make sure they have the approvals they'll need to use the new stations when they come online.
"It's building season pretty soon here," Knesek said. "My hope is that the transparency will continue and that we will see a list of actual project sites for this year and the upcoming years as soon as possible, so we can make sure that we're ready for when those are in place."
Last July, the budget reconciliation bill known as the Big Beautiful Bill included more than $12 billion for aviation improvements across the country. The bill also included new weather stations, ranging from weather cameras to more complex stations that include cameras and suites of sensors.
"They're all helpful in the fact that they're going to increase safety and aviation throughout the state," Knesek said.
The FAA plans to install about 64 weather cameras and many of the new weather stations by the end of 2028.
In Alaska, the FAA partnered with air carriers and transportation experts to decide which communities most need the new weather stations, and which type.
Michael Jones, an economist at the University of Alaska Anchorage, was part of that work. His research looks into how gaps in weather reporting affect flights and food security in villages.
"There are many places in Alaska that have well over two or three thousand pounds of freight and mail delivered per person annually, " he said. "Those end up being pretty high priority areas."
Jones said the working group also prioritized coastal villages that tend to have low visibility and places where medevac flights are more challenging. He said the group submitted those recommendations to the FAA.
Cohl Pope, who manages the FAA's Weather Camera Program, said the agency does not plan to release where they will install the new weather cameras because those locations can change slightly.
He said that, overall, the goal is to bring new cameras to places like remote villages and flight routes where there are gaps in weather reporting.
"We're not putting cameras at Anchorage International Airport, per se, they're not needed there," Pope said. "But they're needed in flight routes, mountain passes, smaller airports where there's no other weather information."
However, there are some clues about where some new weather stations will go.
For several airports, the Alaska Department of Public Transportation and Public Facilities has released public notices that mention installing or improving weather stations. Those airports include Tuntutuliak in the Yukon Kuskokwim Delta and Ouzinkie in the Kodiak Archipelago, neither of which has a weather station.
There are also leases for False Pass and Akutan in the Aleutians and for Willow in Southcentral Alaska.
It's still unclear how the new stations will be maintained. Last summer, the FAA said that the bill primarily funds new installations and upgrades, not maintenance. Weather experts have said that on any given day, 10%-15% of Alaska's aviation weather stations are down or not fully working.
Adam White with the Alaska Airmen's Association said a lack of funding for weather station repairs has been a long-time frustration.
"The focus of what we're seeing here recently is expansion of infrastructure and new infrastructure," he said. "Not necessarily, 'How do we maintain what we currently have.'"
But overall, White said, that the state will greatly benefit from the aviation provisions in the bill.
"Alaska has been in need of more infrastructure for a very long time, and we are finally getting some of the infrastructure we need," he said. "It's going to make life a lot safer in the state."
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