Thunderstorm Safety

Editorial Staff

Thursday, July 31, 2014 at 12:00 AM ET

Verified

Key Takeaways:

Warm-season thunderstorms pose numerous severe aviation hazards (e.g., turbulence, microbursts, icing) that pilots often underestimate, making strategic avoidance the paramount safety strategy.
Modern portable weather radar tools, while valuable, have significant limitations such as data latency, showing precipitation rather than air movement or turbulence, and potential altitude inaccuracies, thus they are best used for broad avoidance rather than navigating through storm cells.
If thunderstorm penetration becomes unavoidable, pilots must strictly adhere to established safety protocols, including maintaining specific altitude and power settings, focusing on instruments, and flying a straight course, to minimize structural stress and other severe risks.

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As summer arrives and the days get longer, pilots may let their guard down when it comes to weather. Icing and large hail may certainly be less of a factor during the balmy dog days, but the June, 1999 American MD-80 runway excursion and the Delta L-1011 crash in August, 1985 are some of the incidents that underscore the hazards of flying during the warm season.

Thunderstorms can be awesomely beautiful phenomena when viewed from the ground. They also contain almost every known aviation hazard—turbulence, icing, hail, lightning, microbursts, reduced visibility, and strong winds. So, when viewed from the air, thunderstorms can be terrifying. Understanding the how and why of the weather and your weather avoidance tools can increase your margin of safety when slipping the surly bonds this summer.