"Jose" wrote in message
m...
Fred is a certified weather observer, but the station is officially
closed.

Then Fred is not certified to take weather observations at that station.

If your FBO has a certified weather observer on staff it's because he's
at a certified weather observing station.

Ok, I should have read on a bit more before posting. I take it that a
certified weather observer loses his certification every time the station
closes (say for the evening), and regains it whenever the station opens in
the morning. So if Fred goes there when the station is closed, and does
=exactly= the same thing he would have when it was open (except for the
reporting path), then the observation is not official.

Is this ultimately what it rests on?


An "official weather observation" is not only made by a "certified weather
observer", but it makes it onto "official telecommunications channels"
(which include a drop to ATC), and it is recorded in "official databases"
(whether paper or electronic). Part of all that is specifically so that the
details of record can be examined in case of an air accident.

So Fred's after-hours personal report is official only if it makes it
through all those steps.