Many fearful flyers watch the sky with suspicion. You see clouds or rain and think it means danger. You believe that weather is a chaotic and unpredictable force that can strike the plane at any moment. This fear often comes from your ground-based life where a sudden rainstorm can ruin a picnic or hail can damage your car.
Aviation does not guess about the weather. We have turned meteorology into a precise science over the last century. Pilots never take off without a full briefing. We know exactly where the wind shear is. We know where the icing conditions are. We know the visibility at the destination. If the conditions are unsafe then the flight does not happen. It is that simple.
We do not fly into thunderstorms. We see them on radar from miles away. We route around them by at least 5 to 18 kilometers.
You might think that sunny days are safer. This is often incorrect. On a clear sunny day the sun heats the earth unevenly. Cities get hot and forests stay cool. This creates thermal columns of rising air that cause low-level turbulence. Overcast days often provide smoother air because the clouds block the sun and keep the temperature even.
The aviation system is designed to handle weather variability. Even clear air turbulence which cannot always be seen on radar is not dangerous to the aircraft structure. We have strict limits for everything. There are limits for crosswinds during landing. There are limits for visibility. If the weather exceeds these limits we divert. We go to a different airport. We do not gamble. Everything is monitored. Everything is managed.
