By Sara QuamNew technology at the airport will put Luverne on the map — the weather map, anyway.Luverne Municipal Airport just received an Automated Weather Observation System from the Minnesota Department of Transportation.Airport Board member Pat Baustian said, "When planes come to land, they want to see moisture conditions and cross winds. They worry about ice on the wings. There are all kinds of things to check and they want to know the conditions in Luverne, not Pipestone or Sioux Falls."Baustian hopes planes that used other airports for this reason will now land in Luverne because they’ll have adequate information."We’ve had pilots who’ve diverted because of conditions in Luverne that they didn’t know about," Baustian said.He said the detailed weather information isn’t useful only to pilots."People in agriculture will also find the information useful," Baustian said.Humidity, wind and local exact temperatures can be accessed at www.weatherchannel.com. Luverne’s information will be online within a few days.In other airport news, the city is pursuing replacing the hangar that was destroyed in the August wind storm and adding another additional hangar.
