Winds 320 at 3, gusts to 18

On Sun, 09 Sep 2007 19:52:02 -0700, Jay Honeck wrote:

We were flying into Prairie du Chien, WI (PDC) today, for brunch at
the casino after picking up our son's girlfriend in Davenport, IA
(DVN) for her very first airplane ride, ever, and I was taxiing out
for departure, when PDC's AWOS reported this somewhat bizarre wind
reading.

That's a new record for us, as I believe the minimum airspeed
registered by an AWOS is 3 knots -- but with gusts to 18? We
actually both did a "Say what?" into the intercom, and we listened to
the whole thing again. Then, within a minute, the AWOS was reporting
"Winds calm", which just made the report even more unusual.

We've had a similar thing happen at my home field. The medevac helicopters
occasionally land near the office where the anemometer for the SuperUnicom is
mounted. The rotor wash will blow the thing around, and the winds will taken a
20 knot jump for a short time. Actually had to reassure a guy inbound that the
winds over the runway WEREN'T as strong as the robot was reporting....

Ron Wanttaja