Winter Storms

Monday, December 19, 2022 at 10:58 AM ET

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Key Takeaways:

Winter storms, particularly nor'easters in the Northeast, present a combination of severe aviation hazards including icing, IMC, strong winds, and short daylight hours, often leading to accidents despite weather briefings.
These storms form from the interaction of cold air (e.g., from Canada over snow) and warm, moist air (e.g., from the Gulf Stream), with the resulting baroclinic zone driving intensification and defining hazardous frontal regions.
Pilots must understand key hazardous zones like the Cold Conveyor Belt (north/west of the low), which creates extensive icing at 5,000-10,000 feet MSL, and the Warm Conveyor Belt (east of the low), which also carries high icing risk if temperatures remain chilled.
Visibility hazards like advection fog are common, forming when warm, moist air moves over cold terrain, typically ahead of a warm front, while precipitation can lower ceilings and visibility in other parts of the system.

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When winter arrives, it’s nice not to have to worry about big thunderstorms, high density altitudes, and being bounced all over the place flying the local pattern. But winter brings a few tradeoffs: a big increase in IMC, stratified precipitation, icing, high-level clear-air turbulence, all-day windstorms, and of course the short daylight hours.

The biggest flying hazards come with well-developed winter storms. These bring all the winter dangers in one convenient package. In the Northeast states, winter storms that interact with Gulf Stream waters and undergo rapid development along the coast are common enough that they’ve been given a name: the nor’easter. They’re responsible for the vast majority of the intense winter weather affecting that part of the country.