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Today's Air Traffic Report:

Lingering wind from Tropical Storm #Jose may slow flights in Boston (BOS) and the New York area (EWR, JFK, LGA). Thunderstorms are possible this morning in Minneapolis-St. Paul (MSP) and likely this afternoon in southern Florida (FLL, MIA). Morning clouds are forecast for San Francisco (SFO).

Pilots: Check out the new Graphical Forecasts for Aviation (GFA) Tool from the Aviation Weather Center.

For up-to-the-minute air traffic operations information, visit fly.faa.gov, and follow @FAANews on Twitter for the latest news and Air Traffic Alerts.

The FAA Air Traffic Report provides a reasonable expectation of any daily impactsto normal air traffic operations, i.e. arrival/departure delays, ground stoppages, airport closures. This information is for air traffic operations planning purposes and is reliable as weather forecasts and other factors beyond our ability to control.

Always check with your air carrier for flight-specific delay information.

WASHINGTON FAA Administrator Michael Huerta today drove home the importance of working together in the face of natural disasters that have caused so much devastation in recent weeks, in his final speech before ICAOs North American, Central American and Caribbean (NACC) Directors of Civil Aviation meeting.

The 2017 hurricane season already has devastated too many of our nations. As if that wasn't enough, our friends in Mexico were struck by two deadly earthquakes as well, Huerta said at the NACC meeting in Washington. Some of our attendees here today have family in Mexico City, where the extent of this weeks quake is still being determined. Please know all of our thoughts are with you during this trying time.

These moments of tragedy bind us together, Huerta said. We grieve for the lives lost. We comfort the displaced. And we vow to rebuild. We are neighbors. What happens to one of us affects us all.

Huerta reaffirmed the FAAs commitment to help the region as a whole to recover. The agency has continued to support efforts to get all Florida airports back to full operations including those in the Florida Keys. The FAA brought one mobile air traffic control tower to Key West from Connecticut by truck earlier this week to replace the damaged tower there, and airlifted another mobile tower from Boise, Idaho to St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands last week to manage relief flights to and from the island. The agency also sent an airports inspector to St. Martin last week to help assess the readiness of the airfield for non-military relief flights.

In addition, the FAA has issued hundreds of unmanned aircraft authorizations to aid in the response to Hurricanes Harvey and Irma, and anticipates issuing more for the area damaged by Maria in the next few days. Drones are being used to quickly and safely assess damage to homes, businesses and critical infrastructure. They help target and prioritize recovery activities.

The NACC meeting gives us an opportunity to come together, share ideas, and find new ways to work together toward our common goals, Huerta said. But what is even more important is that we can use this meeting to reaffirm our partnerships and ask for and receive the assistance that is needed from one another.

Huerta added, As my time as FAA Administrator is drawing to a close, let me say what a privilege its been to work with all of you over the years. We should all be proud of the work that we do to ensure that travelers can continue to take it for granted that they will arrive safely at their destinations. The work we do every day makes that happen and we are successful because we do it together.

Administrator Huerta's remarks can be viewed on our website.

September 18-Yesterday, a mobile air traffic control tower arrived at Key West International Airport in Florida after a road trip down the East Coast by trailer from Hartford, CT. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) repositioned the fully-equipped tower to provide air traffic services for all of the aircraft operating in and out of Key West that are supporting the relief and recovery of the isolated Florida Keys in the wake of Hurricane Irma.

The FAA also has temporarily located many of the towers controllers closer to the airport to reduce lengthy commutes.

In addition to the mobile tower, the FAA has brought a trailer to the site to support the tower controllers with an air-conditioned break room and lavatories. Before the tower arrived, controllers were managing air traffic at the airport from a small tent.

As controllers started working the radios in the new mobile tower at Key West this morning, the FAA was making plans to pack up another mobile tower it airlifted to St. Thomas last week and temporarily relocate it to a safer mainland position in advance of Hurricane Maria. The tower will remain on a military C-17 until the storm passes and will immediately head back to St. Thomas after the storm.

The FAA also has been supporting the Florida recovery effort by authorizing drone operations around the state to aid rapid damage assessment. To date, the FAA has authorized 173 drone operations for the area damaged by Hurricane Irma, and 121 of those are still in effect. The primary authorized drone operations are supporting power and insurance companies.

Government agencies with an FAA Certificate of Authorization (COA) and private sector Part 107 drone operators who want to fly to support of response and recovery operations are strongly encouraged to coordinate their activities with the local incident commander responsible for the area in which they want to operate.

If UAS operators need to fly in controlled airspace or a disaster TFR to support the response and recovery, operatorsmustcontact the FAAs System Operations Support Center (SOSC) by emailing9-ATOR-HQ-SOSC@faa.govto determine the information they need to provide in order to secure authorization to access the airspace. Coordination with the SOSC may also include a requirement that the UAS operator obtain support from the appropriate incident commander.The FAA may require information about the operator, the UAS type, a PDF copy of a current FAA COA, the pilots Part 107 certificate number, details about the proposed flight (date, time, location, altitude, direction and distance to the nearest airport, and latitude/longitude), nature of the event (fire, law enforcement, local/national disaster, missing person) and the pilots qualification information.

The FAA warns unauthorized drone operators that they may be subject to significant fines if they interfere with emergency response operations. Many aircraft that are conducting life-saving missions and other critical response and recovery efforts are likely to be flying at low altitudes over areas affected by the storm. Flying a drone without authorization in or near the disaster area may unintentionally disrupt rescue operations and violate federal, state, or local laws and ordinances, even if aTemporary Flight Restriction(TFR) is not in place. Allow first responders to save lives and property without interference.

September 15-After the widespread devastation Hurricane Irma wreaked on Florida last weekend, unmanned aircraft more popularly, drones have been invaluable in supporting response and recovery efforts in the battered Sunshine State.

When Irmas winds and floodwaters damaged homes, businesses, roadways and industries, a wide variety of agencies sought Federal Aviation Administration authorization to fly drones in the affected areas. The FAA responded quickly, issuing a total of 132 airspace authorizations as of today to ensure the drones can operate safely.

For example, the Air National Guard used drones normally tasked for combat operations to perform aerial surveys. The drones allow the Guard to assess disaster-stricken areas quickly and decide which are the most in need of assistance. Similarly, U.S. Customs and Border Protection sent drones from Corpus Christi to Florida to help map areas in Key West, Miami and Jacksonville, using radar to survey geographic points on infrastructure such as power plants for The Federal Emergency Management Agency.

The private sector is playing its part as well. For instance, Airbus Aerial, the commercial drone services division of Airbus, is helping insurance companies act more quickly on claims coming in from homeowners. The company is combining data from drones, manned aircraft and satellite data to give a clearer overall image of specific locations before and after an incident.

Irma left approximately 6 million Floridians without electric power as temperatures remained in the mid-80s, so bringing the power grid back up is critical. In the northern part of the state, Jacksonville Electric Authority (JEA) is using drones to assist not only with power restoration, but also to ensure the safety of its crews. JEA said it was able to get all its damage assessments done within 24 hours after the storm passed through.

Drones also have played a significant role in helping Florida Power and Light (FPL) restore electricity especially air conditioning for its 4.4 million customers. The company has 49 drone teams out surveying parts of the state still not accessible by vehicles. Some of the drone operators FPL hired were flying within an hour after the storm winds subsided.

FPL cited the recovery effort as a stellar example of cooperation by local, state and federal authorities, including kudos for the FAA.

The search and recovery effort in Florida followed all too soon on the heels of similar operations in the Houston area, where drones played a vital role as well. The FAA issued 137 authorizations, sometimes within a few hours, to drone operators performing search and rescue missions and assessing damage to roads, bridges and other critical infrastructure. In addition to the direct response and recovery efforts, several media outlets flew drones over Houston to provide coverage to local residents and the world about flooding and damage in the area.

The FAAs ability to quickly authorize unmanned aircraft operations after both Irma and Harvey was especially critical because most local airports were either closed or dedicated to emergency relief flights, and the fuel supply was low. FAA Administrator Michael Huerta neatly summed up the importance of drone operations to Irma and Harvey recovery operations in a speech to the InterDrone conference last week:

Essentially, every drone that flew meant that a traditional aircraft was not putting an additional strain on an already fragile system. I dont think its an exaggeration to say that the hurricane response will be looked back upon as a landmark in the evolution of drone usage in this country.

The FAA is also helping with another key part of the Irma recovery by moving a second mobile air traffic tower from Connecticut to Key West, FL to provide a safe, sheltered environment for air traffic controllers to manage relief traffic at the airport. Earlier this week, the FAA shipped another mobile tower to storm-battered St. Thomas by air to support controllers there. The tower for Key West is scheduled to leave Connecticut today on a truck and arrive in Key West in the next few days.