On Wednesday, May 17, 2000, at 2:28 p.m., Ed Danaher sent the following email to all operational units in the World Weather Building:

Subject:  WWB AFOS Turned Off

        After two decades of (mostly) faithful service, the AFOS in the World
Weather Building was turned off at 11:10 AM this morning.  The line to
SMCC was switched off and the system software halted.  The hardware was
left powered on, however, in case the system needs to be quickly
revived.
        Current plans are to turn off the power to the hardware tomorrow
afternoon unless a previously unidentified user surfaces.  The hardware,
phone lines, etc., will remain in place for several weeks while the
paperwork to remove the beast moves forward.
 

A month later, the AFOS hardware was hauled away...
 

Jim Hoke (left), Director of WPC and MPC, looks on as Erich Wolf,  AFOS System Manager, informs SMCC that AFOS will be removed from service. That's Tom Baldwin of the NESDIS Satellite Analysis Branch working in the background.

Erich, assisted by ET Jim Burke, powers down AFOS for the last time.		"I may need some help with this..."  (WPC Administrative Officer Jerry Delaney)
Jerry says "Let's get this outta here!"		Onto the elevator and into history...

The AFOS served the people of the National Weather Service well for over two decades.  Besides enabling NWS staff to serve the growing needs of the country for weather information, the AFOS was important in its role as a stepping stone to the more modern technology that has replaced it -- the Advanced Weather Interactive Processing System (AWIPS) and its National Centers counterpart N-AWIPS.