What type of weather causes delays?
 

I fly out of a regional airport with jet service . Flights are often delayed/cancelled due to the weather. In what order do the various types of bad weather rank? Here is my list:

Wind
Snow
Rain
Fog
Ice
Cold temperatures
Combinations of above

How much snow, how much winds, etc is bad?

Depends entirely on the airport.

How about this one:

Moline/Quad City International Airport - MLI
http://qcairport.com/

Any type of weather can cause delays -- it only depends on how extreme it is.

Don’t forget the jet stream.

That was Scot Kirby’s ridiculous excuse for the dismal DOT stats at US last year.

Winds aloft can cause a delayed arrival. Nothing ridiculous about that.

inch of snow shuts down LHR.

Q: What type of weather causes delays?

A: Any.

Q: What kind of weather causes delays at ORD or LGA?

A: A light breeze. Or somebody sneezing in the wrong direction. The whole day's schedule is shot to hell.

True, but remember that this was a response as to why the on-time performance was much worse than other carriers, as if it only affected US.

Will rain cause a delay at DCA.

I am flying to Florida on Sunday and it is scheduled to rain a little.

I have flown into and out of Orlando during a tropical storm - pouring rain and ridiculous winds. I was amazed they were still flying, but the pilots did an incredible job.

On the other hand, I was a victim of a ground stoppage for flights into JFK due to fog.

If you have 12 inches of snow on the ground, but the ground crew can keep the runways clear, you can probably still land. Freezing rain and ice could be a different story though.

There could be very little snow on the ground but white-out conditions in the air, and they can't see - just like fog.

So yeah...pretty much any "kind" of weather could make it unsafe to keep flying under the right conditions.

Last year, a pilot joked that PHX shuts down as soon as they see a cloud in the sky.

Also depends on the airport at the other end of the flight, or from which the airplane is coming from before being used for your flight.

For example, if you are flying from A to B, and weather is clear in both places, you might think that you are not going to hit a weather delay. But if your plane is coming from ORD, it is likely to be delayed for a few hours due to weather at ORD.

About 1990, I was once delayed at PHX when the temperature reached 122 degrees F - we were told by the airline that the delay was because the landing gear tires were rated for a maximum of 120F.

I found this further information on another forum, which seems to offer a more credible explanation:

http://www.city-data.com/forum/phoen...nding-80s.html