Summer afternoons and evenings are particularly prone to thunderstorms, causing many flights to be delayed or canceled.
On June 26, meteorologist Chris Bianchi was stranded overnight at LaGuardia Airport while waiting for a flight that was delayed for several hours. He remarked that he should not have booked a flight for a summer evening. “I broke a rule that I should never have broken,” Business Insider quoted the meteorologist on July 13. “Never book flights in the late afternoon or especially in the evening during the summer months in the U.S.”
Lightning strikes near McCarran International Airport in Nevada. (Photo: Ethan Miller).
Finally, it wasn’t until 7 AM the next day that Bianchi was able to board a flight back home to Denver. Flight attendants also noted that they always book the first morning flight of the day.
The reason they consistently avoid flying at that time is that summer afternoons and evenings are the most susceptible to weather-related flight delays throughout the year. Three factors contribute to thunderstorms: humidity, unstable air, and shifting air masses. During the summer, the Sun’s heat causes movement in the air if it is unstable due to temperature or humidity differences between various layers of the atmosphere. Warm air rises, so the warm summer air near the Earth’s surface begins to ascend into colder, higher altitudes. The moisture in the air causes the rising warm air to cool over time, condensing into clouds. Eventually, thunderstorms form.
“Mornings are usually calmer in most areas. Energy needs time to build up for a storm to develop. You can have a peaceful flight in the morning,” said meteorologist Alyssa Glenny from AccuWeather.
Bad weather can cause delays even when it is not directly along your flight path. It could be occurring in the city where the plane landed previously. A storm in Chicago can delay a flight scheduled to carry passengers from LaGuardia to Miami. “Weather in other cities can really disrupt your travel plans,” Bianchi said.
April and May are particularly bad weather months in the central U.S. plains and along Tornado Alley, according to Glenny. By the end of summer, starting in June, hurricane season begins. Even if your flight is not coming from a coastal city in the path of the storm, these systems often move inland after making landfall, causing tornadoes and thunderstorms across the United States.
For example, the remnants of Hurricane Beryl swept through the Great Lakes and New England, bringing heavy rain and strong winds midweek, just days after the storm made landfall in Texas. Even before making landfall, Hurricane Beryl led to over 1,000 flight cancellations and thousands of delays, according to Reuters.
