26th Operational Weather Squadron

26th Operational Weather Squadron
26th Operational Weather Squadron Patch
Active	1943-Present
Country	United States of America
Branch	US Air Force
Type	Squadron
Part of	Air Force Weather Agency
Garrison/HQ	Barksdale AFB
Nickname(s)	Bayou Bandits
Decorations	Air Force Outstanding Unit Award

The 26th Operational Weather Squadron (26OWS), based out of Barksdale Air Force Base, Louisiana, is the US Air Force meteorological squadron responsible for the Southeastern United States. The current states in the Area of Responsibility (AOR) include Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Tennessee, Alabama, Georgia, Florida, and the Carolinas.

The 26th Operational Weather Squadron is responsible for producing and disseminating mission planning and execution weather analyses, forecasts, and briefings for Air Force, Army, Navy, Marines, Guard, Reserve, USSTRATCOM, and USNORTHCOM forces operating at 134 DoD installations and facilities in those states, providing weather intelligence to protect over 160 billion dollars in assets. The 26th Operational Weather Squadron provides weather forecasts, warnings, and briefings to all Air Force and Army forces operating in the Southeast United States.

Formally train airmen to be forecaster apprentices and weather officers.

This weather squadron is responsible for base or post forecasting, developing weather products, briefing transient aircrews, and weather warnings for all of their geographical units. Using automatic observing systems located at all military installations and communicating with their weather flights, the squadron is able to 'watch' the weather in their entire area of responsibility from one central location.

The Operational Weather Squadron is the first place a newly schooled weather apprentice will report. At the squadron, working alongside a seasoned weather professional, the forecaster is trained in all aspects of Air Force meteorology, from pilot briefing to tactical forecasting. The current OWS's are located at Davis-Monthan AFB, Scott AFB, Hickam AFB, Shaw AFB, and Sembach AB (now moved to Kapuan AB).