NYC Weather Waiver 7/18-Thunderstorms
 

Flying through JFK tomorrow night and just got a notice.

https://www.delta.com/content/www/en...a-weather.html

Rebook/begin new travel by 7/21

sure has been a stormy summer as of late

ETA: though it seems to only be a 20% chance of storms?

I'm struggling to see why this was issued -- only very isolated storms seem to be in the forecast for tomorrow. Maybe because the forecast models seem to be trending slightly towards more storms NW of the city :confused:

I've been taught not to look a gift waiver in the mouth, so let's just go with it :D

Doesn't a low ceiling also affect air traffic control?
Even with a 20% chance of precipitation, odds of delays could well be higher.
Plus, the whole Atlanta meltdown thing.

I guess they must expect storms in the region, if not in NYC specifically? I have watched lengthy ATC delays due to 'storms' at LGA/JFK/EWR before when the nearest storms were near Buffalo and Pittsburgh.

There were no storms in NYC tonight, 7/17, and spotty storms to the west and northwest. as of 10:55 PM, JFK is in a GDP with about 3-hour average delays and EWR with about 4-hour average delays. For whatever reason, ATC is unable to handle even minor weather this summer, and issues low-rate ground delay programs for the NYC metro airports if there even a lone cell hundreds of miles away. I'm not sure the weather is worse this summer, but ATC's handling of traffic certainly is.

Yeah,that makes sense. We all know how the entire Northeast corridor is on a good day, so storms anywhere can have a major impact.

I'm just surprised because most of DL's other waivers have been for bad weather in the NYC area itself. Hmm, DL seems to be very proactive now

Southwest and United joined Delta in weather waivers in NYC for 7/7/17. United joins Delta in this weather waiver 7/18. Maybe DL learned a lesson from the ATL fiasco April '17 but so far they haven't exactly shown a pattern of being uniquely prudent.

NYC area has been running significant delays even with minor weather, or weather several hundred miles away. As others said, seems that ATC either can't handle it if traffic needs to route around any stormy air space within the entire region.

AC also issued waiver for JULY 17 due to thunderstorm and 18 due to ATC for NYC.

I got caught in EWR yesterday. Tried to take a 2:30 EWR-MSP, taxied out, but put on hold, then "ATC cancelled the flight route" according to the pilot (his announcements were excellent and informative). We sat there for 2 hours, FAs brought water around, then we went back to the gate just short of 3 hours. The pilot said all the north routes were closed. The gate area was a zoo, with all flights delayed. The diamond line nor the Sky Club agents knew anything. The gate agents had lines 25+ people long. I finally ended up on a 4:30 that left at 6:36PM, arrived at 9:02PM. The 2:30 left at 7:44PM, arrived at 9:38PM. After that experience, I would say to take the waiver and I for one, am staying clear of the NE corridor airports. By the way, we didn't get a drop of rain at EWR.

NYC area running ok today so far... no ATC delays in the northeast region.

First hand account from a fellow FT'er about their delay in JFK due to storms 100 miles west of JFK, with a good reason demonstrating why Delta is more liberal about giving passengers the option to switch their itinerary. Now they have a potential DOT violation on their hands:
https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/delt...ta-s-awol.html

Welcome to summer travel in Northeast where even a mere rumor of weather is enough disrupt flight operations :D

6:30pm ET: Departure delays at JFK (16-30 minutes and increasing) and LGA/EWR (31-45 minutes and increasing). No inbound delays noted currently.

Sunny in NYC. A few spotty storms over far northwest NJ as well as Rockland and Orange counties in NY.