Do planes fly take off and land during thunderstorms?

Question

I am flying from New York to Chicago and according to the weather report it looks like there might by thunderstorms all along my flight path that day. If that is the case do planes fly in that weather? If so, how bad will the delays most likely be? Is there any chance of them canceling my flight do to thunderstorms?

Answer 1

Once the plane is in the air, it shouldnt matter because they fly above the clouds.  Planes can and do take off when it's raining, and would only delay if the weather is very severe.  Your flight will most likely not be cancelled because a storm won't last for all that long.  Delays of up to a couple of hours are not uncommon, so unless the storm is that long, your plane should take off.

Answer 2

My friend flew out of New York to Cincinnati during a storm.  Since the plane would encounter a storm the entire way, the pilot actually had permission to fly south towards Atlanta and ended up flying around the storm.  The flight was longer than usual but at least the flight was not delayed.

It also depends on how high the storm clouds are.  Many times airplanes fly above the clouds so thunderstorms would not bother them.  However one of our customers flew right beside the storm because they could not fly above the storm clouds.  Apparently the thunderhead clouds reached 60,000 feet.  If there are delays at the airport, which there usually are during thunderstorms, it depends on how busy the airport is and how long the storm is.  If the storm clouds move quickly, then it may not affect flights too badly.

Answer 3

It depends on the condition of the runway.  If its pouring they most likely wont take off and will be a little bit of a delay.  If there are thunderstorms really close but not raining on the runway then they will still takeoff and try to manuever around the storm.  Its hard to guess if there will be a delay or not because conditions would have to be right over the airport but then again planes coming in might get delayed from it if it was raining where it departed from.  I was in a plane that flew right into a thunderstorm and it was shaking a lot but it made it.  Planes can withstand getting hit by lightning but the dangerous part is taking off at hundreds of mph on a really wet runway.  I would say when it gets a little closer to your flight and its pouring in your area to call the airport and see if its delayed or canceled.

Answer 4

I play Flight Simulator X, and they allow in the game, so I don't see why they wouldn't in real life.