DTW closed 8PM 1/22 to 10AM 1/23 - now re-opened
 

I'm not terribly far from DTW. My airport also got pretty much shut down due to the same weather system, but Delta did book me for a later flight through DTW tomorrow. We'll see what happens...

Definitely not closed all day tomorrow. I believe the current expected reopening time is 1:00 AM.

Yes, 1AM is expected re-open time. Temps are currently rising and should be above freezing by midnight.
https://www.fly.faa.gov/flyfaa/flyfa...p?ARPT=dtw&p=0

Flights diverting from DTW

https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...a8cb67e2ae.jpg

Lots of diversions landing in PIT, CLE and CVG.
Most of those diverted flights on the ground are "scheduled" to resume to DTW and land prior to 1am.

A flight from LAN to DTW diverted all the way to CLE: https://flightaware.com/live/flight/...351Z/KLAN/KCLE
Made me wonder if LAN had weather preventing that flight from returning. But then I saw this....
A flight from BUF to DTW diverted to LAN: https://flightaware.com/live/flight/...303Z/KBUF/KLAN

I am sure it was just their predefined alternate. CLE is just 21 more miles.

00:32: No mention in operations plan
01:11: NO RWYS AVAILABLE DUE TO ICING. RWYS BEING TREATED NOW, WILL TAKE UP TO AN HOUR TO REMEDY.
01:19: CUSTOMERS CAN EXPECT ARRIVAL HOLDING INTO THE DTW AIRPORT DUE TO ICING. HOLDING IS EXPECTED UNTIL 0215Z OR UNTIL RWY(S) ARE CLEARED/AVAILABLE.
02:21: DTW AIRPORT CLOSED VIA NOTAM. POSSIBLY REOPENING AROUND 06Z. CHECK NOTAMS FOR UP TO DATE INFORMATION.
02:32: DTW AIRPORT IS NOTAMED CLOSED DUE TO ICING. THEY ARE HOPEFUL THE AIRPORT WILL BE REOPENED AROUND 0600Z; HOWEVER, PLEASE CHECK CURRENT NOTAMS FOR UP TO DATE INFORMATION.

Hour (EST)22 23 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Temperature (°F)29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 38 38 38
Should break 32 degrees at 1 AM, not sure how much ice is there.

Solar powered at night? Hmmm... or are you just saying powered by electricity? ;)
Anyway, the total area that would need to be heated would be ginormous to avoid 1/4" of ice everywhere

1 sq ft of runway covered in 1/4 inch ice (approx 2 inches of snow) is 600 grams of ice. 334 J/g to melt ice gives 200 kJ or 55 watt hours. The largest runway at DTW is 12,000 x 200 ft = 2,400,000 sq ft, x55 = 132,000,000 watt-hours of energy to melt. Natl. Avg is 13.4 c/kWh which gives about $17,000 in energy costs (retail) to melt the ice. Throw in a bulk discount and it might be less, but then account for the intermittent usage and the overhead of the 50-100 MW worth of equipment might cost more.

A cubic yard of salt costs about $35, and the cost to run a plow is in the $250/hour range. Two plows and 10 yards of salt is under $1,000.

Placing the solar strips underneath the pavement is silly since it will get all messed up by the dirt and grime. Install the solar panels anywhere else and sell it to the grid at market rates, it doesn't change the equations any and should be considered as a separate transaction.

Not included in the cost comparison: heater elements, re-working the runway, electrical maintenance, operations

They just need to bring back the flame-thrower trucks from Airport '70 :) Whatever happened to those?

And an article from a few years back.

https://jdasolutions.aero/news-event...t-warms-up.pdf

Money quote -- "If you use enough electricity you will melt the snow, but who pays the electric bill?"

But hey, I'm sure a solar cell farm will work great in the dead of a Michigan winter.

Delta just issued a waiver for DTW, for 22-23 January:

https://www.delta.com/us/en/advisori...winter-weather