Air Traffic Control Developmental
Air Traffic Control Time Certified In Pos 1 (yrs) 6.3
Training / Qualification
Aircraft Equipment Problem Critical; Inflight Event / Encounter Weather / Turbulence
Air Traffic Control Provided Assistance; General Declared Emergency
Weather
Well I am not sure how to fill out this report; however this information needs to be put out to pilots/NBAA/NASA/ALPA and especially other controllers.  I did not work a single one of the aircraft that had an emergency.  I am simply one of the controllers on our area safety team and believe this event needs to be investigated.  On [date removed] there was a significant weather event at ZJX.  A stalled cold/warm front had been moving across the area southeast bound very slowly.   This is not uncommon for this time of year and we had many center wide TMI's in place to make the traffic complexity manageable considering the weather and increased volume due to holiday travel.     There was an odd meteorological event that took place causing multiple aircraft emergencies all in the same sector and all in a period of about 5 hours.  According to the pilots there was a 30 degree temperature change at altitude FL360-FL430 on the edge of the front.  This is significant at altitudes such as this because aircraft are usually in the top of their operating envelope for performance at these altitudes before engine anti-icing or turbulence become a factor.  Multiple aircraft experienced loss of engine power; loss of pressurization and engine icing.  What we do know is that from about a five hour period there were 6 emergencies in the central area alone.  There were multiple other emergencies throughout the center that had to do with pressurization/engine failure/lost power. I am bringing this to the attention of [Name removed] not because we continued to allow aircraft to fly into this area but simply because we had no information available to us to warn the pilots.  In most weather related emergencies turbulence/icing/lightning are issues.  Even in areas of CAT; SIGMETS are usually disseminated.  So we usually have some indication of potential hazards.  The only information we had was an area of moderate to heavy precipitation.  This happened in ZJX in 2009 as well.  A significant line of weather with dramatic pressure / temperature change and there were multiple pressurization emergencies.  One controller had more than 6 in a row.   Pilot training (Advisory circular);Controller training.  Investigate the hazard by NASA. Not to just assume these things happen.  Notification of potential hazards to flight via NOTAMs; FSS and the SIGMET/PIREP service.  Briefings to the user group of potential hazards associated with cold fronts create potential power loss/pressurization issues.  I only want this phenomenon to be made known.  It happens rarely but when it does there is a significant amount of risk introduced into the system that could be mitigated.  Similar to the micro-burst situation in the 80s; we didn't know if it existed for sure.  I believe this was a similar event.  Without this information being disseminated to the users there is potential for loss of life.  I am happy to disclose an identified copy of this report if needed and to help answer any questions you may have.  Thank you all!
ZJX Controller describes situation related to severe weather that has six aircraft declaring emergency because of the weather.