HDQDD

Somehow I got lucky yesterday. Took off from RDU @ 2p and my connecting flight (on a CRJ no less) was somehow also ontime.

After about 1:30 the storms had pushed to the East and South of ATL. That's what the OP encountered. The SE arrival "gate" was closed for a while, because there were "no routes". When that happens, you can count on a long day. For most major airports, ATC only accepts approved routes. In the case of FL almost all the traffic goes over one gate. If that gate is closed, then they have to find and publish another route (see below) that airlines can use. Then the airline has to refile their flight plan over the alternate route, which often results in a higher fuel burn, so more fuel may be needed. This process takes a lot of time (or at least it did back in the early 2000s).

If you look at the last advisory, they were rerouting some ZJX/ZMA arrivals over Crestview, FL, then MGM. Then they'd go over the SW arrival gate for the WARRR1 (Warrior 1) arrival. The others were being routed over SPA (Spartanburg, SC) for the NE arrival gate joining the DIRTY3 arrival.

Note: ZJX and ZMA are Jacksonville and Miami centers. PNS is in ZJX.


CTL ELEMENT: ATL
ELEMENT TYPE: APT
ADL TIME: 1801Z
GROUND STOP PERIOD: 06/1751Z - 06/1900Z
CUMULATIVE PROGRAM PERIOD: 06/1742Z - 06/2259Z
DEP FACILITIES INCLUDED: (Manual) ZJX ZMA
PREVIOUS TOTAL, MAXIMUM, AVERAGE DELAYS: 1464 / 118 / 46
NEW TOTAL, MAXIMUM, AVERAGE DELAYS: 2789 / 163 / 87
PROBABILITY OF EXTENSION: MEDIUM
IMPACTING CONDITION: WEATHER / THUNDERSTORMS
COMMENTS: ZJX AND ZMA GS, AWAITING ROUTES TO ATL.

One of the many published reroutes yesterday:

NAME: FLA_TO_ATL
CONSTRAINED AREA: ZTL
REASON: WEATHER
INCLUDE TRAFFIC: AGS/CAE/CHS/FLO/SAV/ZJX/ZMA DEPARTURES TO ATL
FACILITIES INCLUDED: ZJX/ZMA/ZTL
FLIGHT STATUS: ALL_FLIGHTS
VALID: ETD 061849 TO 062300
PROBABILITY OF EXTENSION: MODERATE
REMARKS:
ASSOCIATED RESTRICTIONS: PASSED VIA NTML
MODIFICATIONS:
ROUTES:

ORIG DEST ROUTE
---- ---- -----
ZMA ATL >LAL SZW J2 CEW MGM< WARRR1
ZJX(-SAV -CHS -CAE ATL >CEW MGM< WARRR1
-FLO)
SAV CHS CAE FLO ATL >SPA< DIRTY3