Use of local climatic data to determine if weather precludes the operation of an air medical system.
BACKGROUND
Weather is one of many factors that affect safety in an air medical program. Syracuse, New York, has notoriously bad weather, and some have questioned whether an air medical service is practical given central New York's climate. This study was undertaken to determine the extent to which the area's climate could be expected to limit the availability of an air medical service.


METHODS
CAMTS weather minimums for rotor-wing programs were compared with 1996-1997 hourly weather observations from the Northeastern Regional Climate Center (NRCC) and sunrise/sunset data from the United States Naval Observatory to determine how frequently weather conditions could be expected to preclude an air medical response in the greater Syracuse area.


RESULTS
Exactly 17,544 hourly observations were made. CAMTS weather minimums would have precluded local flights for 606 (3.5%) of these hours and cross-country flights for 1111 (6.3%) hours. Cross-country flights were more likely to be precluded than local flights (P = .001), and both local and cross-country flights were more likely to be precluded at nighttime than in the daytime (P = .001). All flights were more likely to be precluded during winter months than during summer months (P = .000).


CONCLUSIONS
The weather in central New York generally does not preclude the operation of an air medical services system.
Whitney
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CL
Department of Emergency Medicine, State University of New York Health Science Center at Syracuse, Syracuse, N.Y., USA.
Brown
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LH
Hunt
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RC
D017732:Air Ambulances; D001359:Aviation; D003657:Decision Making; D009518:New York; D017751:Safety Management; D012621:Seasons; D014887:Weather