Albania Weather

Let me start with a good message on the military look. We were effective. First, since the air operation began, the majority of days the weather has been unfavourable or marginal. This graphic shows the weather history thus far. I want you to fully understand, generally NATO has the capability to operate through solid cloud cover and we can take the fight to the enemy in any weather. However, for a variety of reasons we impose restrictions on our operations in bad weather. The single biggest reason is our commitment to ensuring we strike only military and military-related targets. You all understand that we are using a variety of precision weapons. Many of the weapons require laser guidance and as you know, you cannot by and large use laser guidance through very thick cloud cover. Also other weapons of course require that we see the target throughout the attack to ensure precision and to make sure that we don't hit somebody who should not be hit. ... [Read More]

Department of State, International Information Programs, U.S. Foreign Policy Agenda, December 1999 - "Preventing Conflict: Military Engagement in Peacetime"

Colonel Ion Didoiu, Director of Training for the Romanian Ministry of Defense, was quite pleased. The weather in Bucharest was unseasonably cold and rainy, but the joint U.S.-Romanian training program during the past two weeks had been a huge success. A team of military officers, lawyers, and other experts from the U.S. Defense Institute of International Legal Studies (DIILS) in Newport, Rhode Island, had conducted seminars in Bucharest and Brasov that focused on the theme, "Peace Operations and Disciplined Military Operations." ... [Read More]

USIS Washington File: TRANSCRIPT: BACKGROUNDER BY NATO SPOKESMAN JAMIE SHEA MAY 10

JAMIE SHEA: No, I think as I pointed out very clearly at the beginning of my little up-date today, it is entirely due to the unfavourable weather conditions yesterday, but I think also from what I said you can see that last night there were a large number of sorties, we had well in excess of 300 sorties despite the very bad weather conditions, so you can see that we continue the operation in the same constant way as before. And as for Belgrade, as I said yesterday, you should not see any particular significance in that, the targets on the day are entirely in the hands of the military commanders, they choose what has the priority on the day. ... [Read More]

USIS Washington File: TRANSCRIPT: UNRELENTING AIRSTRIKES TO CONTINUE, CLINTON SAYS

THE PRESIDENT: My impression is -- and, again, I think I owe it to the Secretary of Defense and General Shelton, to give them a chance to answer, because they're here -- that everyone agreed that while there were problems with the air campaign, including the weather, which all of you saw last week, that this was the best available option for us to maximize the possibility of achieving our mission of standing up against ethnic cleansing, fulfilling NATO's commitment, getting the refugees to be able to go back home, live in peace and security and have some autonomy. ... [Read More]

US Dept of State

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USIS Washington File: TRANSCRIPT: PENTAGON BRIEFING ON "OPERATION ALLIED FORCE" APRIL 5

Bacon: I'm not aware that the allies are going to commit attack helicopters at this time, but, of course, that could change. And I don't know the percentage of U.S. strikes, but I would, whatever it is, I would expect it to decline somewhat because during the bad weather we had the assets that were able to operate in all-weather capability, in all-weather conditions. So by definition, we would have performed more of them. With the weather improving, I would expect the allies to perform a greater proportion of the strikes. ... [Read More]

USIS Washington File: SUMMARY OF NATO BRIEFING FROM USNATO

-- Weather affected a majority of the missions on night 21. ... [Read More]

USIS Washington File: TRANSCRIPT: NATO BRIEFING ON "OPERATION ALLIED FORCE" APRIL 6

Air Commodore Wilby: Ok, let me try and hit that monster question. First of all, as I've said time and time again, the difficulty of hitting troops on the ground is to locate them and then press home very accurate attacks. What we are being very careful about is not just attacking people and then causing a lot of collateral damage to whatever else may be in that particular area. And we want to be as precise as we can with our munitions, so we are trying, now the weather is better, to locate those targets and to hit them as quickly as we can. I was very honest with you about yesterday's operation, but despite the good weather, we did have problems actually seeing the targets and being able to get them on the ground. It is a very cunning enemy out there, they know when we take off, because the numbers of reporters and people that are sitting outside the various air bases, they can calculate how long we're going to be before we enter the area and they make sure that during those tim ... [Read More]

USIS Washington File: TRANSCRIPT: NATO BRIEFING ON "OPERATION ALLIED FORCE," APRIL 14

So clearly we are able to operate in bad weather and continue to strike a number of militarily significant targets. And as we bring in aircraft which have all-weather capabilities and the rest we will continue obviously not to be hampered by the weather. You know there is a famous proverb, or saying, where I come from which says "we will weather the weather, whatever the weather, whether we like it or not", and I think that is the motto of our pilots. I don't know whether General Marani has anything to add to that? ... [Read More]

US Department Of State Post Report

There is a current Albanian aphorism which holds that Tirana has two seasons: dust and mud.  Those posted to the Embassy should bring sturdy weatherproof shoes and boots suitable to withstand very wet, muddy conditions in winter.  In summer, the abundant dust presents an impediment to keeping houses, clothes, and shoes clean.  Air quality in Tirana is bad due to car exhaust, open fires, and dust and may prove to be an irritant to those with respiratory sensitivities.  Eye irritation is also common. Preventive MeasuresLast Updated:  9/30/2003 9:24 AM  ... [Read More]