Originally Posted by
jtet
Ummm... Yeah. I was literally typing the note while listening to the rain on my windows in the SF Bay Area. Going over Ventura would have easily been enough to avoid the little area of weather over LA - and would have had less weather than they flew thru on the SF route. Sorry, I don't buy "weather over LA" as the "obvious" answer here. Any other theories?
Generally the flight plans are optimized for best time and fuel burn. There are other factors considered like enroute weather, turbulence and airspace constraints. Therefore, it could very well have been a combination of it all. But you're right, it's highly unlikely the flight took a northerly route because of some rain in So Cal. If I had to guess, there may have been turbulence on the southern tracks.