Is It Safe to Fly a Plane in a Thunderstorm? What Passengers Should Know

Yes, planes can fly in thunderstorms, and they do it every day. Commercial aircraft are built and certified to handle turbulence, heavy rain, and even lightning strikes, and pilots use onboard weather radar to fly around the worst of a storm rather than through it.

What storms threaten most is your schedule. The US aviation regulator, the FAA, says weather causes about 75% of air traffic delays of more than 15 minutes, and thunderstorms are a leading culprit on both sides of the Atlantic.

In Europe in 2025, according to Eurocontrol, weather accounted for 32% of all air traffic flow management (ATFM) delays.

Key takeaways

• Flying near or around thunderstorms is generally safe.
• Aircraft are designed to withstand lightning strikes.
• Modern weather radar helps pilots avoid the most hazardous parts of storms.
• Storms are more likely to cause delays or diversions than real danger.
• Weather delays rarely qualify for compensation, but care (meals, hotels, transfers) and refund or re-routing rights still apply.

Which types of thunderstorms disrupt flights?

You learn that your flight is delayed for 3+ hours, but you look out the window and see only light rain. Storms vary enormously, and heavy rain and thunder aren't always the most dangerous components. Wind speed and the size of the storm are the factors pilots and air traffic control weigh when assessing a storm's impact on travel.

What makes storms dangerous for planes?

The main hazards a thunderstorm poses to aircraft are wind shear, downdrafts and microbursts, turbulence, lightning, and hail, and most of them matter far more near the ground than at cruising altitude.

Wind shear and microbursts

These two phenomena are the most hazardous low-altitude weather dangers:

• Wind shear: A sudden and drastic change in the direction and speed of the wind that can destabilise a plane at low altitude and contribute to turbulence.
• Microbursts: A powerful, concentrated downdraft of air from a thunderstorm. They can cause sudden drops in altitude, with winds up to 100 mph, often arriving with very heavy rain that reduces visibility for radar and pilots.

Modern aircraft use predictive wind shear systems. Major airports use ground-based detection systems, such as Terminal Doppler Weather Radar (TDWR), to warn crews of dangerous conditions.

If wind shear or a microburst threatens an approach, pilots can simply go around and try again or divert.

Turbulence

Turbulence during thunderstorms can be very difficult for passengers, and it is usually more intense the closer the aircraft is to the storm's core, especially at higher altitudes. In July 2024, around 40 passengers were injured when their Air Europa flight to Uruguay encountered severe turbulence and was forced to land in Brazil.

Hail

Hail is common in severe thunderstorms and can damage a plane's engines and outer surface. And as the climate warms, storms are expected to become more frequent and intense, which means more of these encounters, not fewer.

Why aircraft can safely fly near lightning

No one wants to see lightning out their plane window, but typically, a commercial aircraft is struck by lightning roughly once a year. Modern planes are actually designed to handle lightning strikes in the air, acting as a Faraday cage.

In the rare event that lightning hits the plane, the electrical current only travels along an intentional pathway along the plane’s exterior. It exits at an intentional point and never passes through the passenger cabin.

Passengers and both the critical electrical and fuel systems are protected, and no plane can be certified without these measures in place. The only thing a passenger might see or hear is a flash of light or a loud bang.

This protection has an extremely strong safety record. No commercial jet has been lost because of a lightning strike in more than 50 years. The last US airliner crash attributed to lightning was Pan Am Flight 214 in 1963, when lightning ignited fuel vapour.

Is it safe to fly in a thunderstorm?

Yes. Thanks to modern engineering, commercial planes handle thunderstorms well, and every commercial aircraft must meet the safety requirements of regulators such as the CAA in the UK, EASA in Europe, and the FAA in the US.

Most airliners also carry sophisticated weather radar that lets pilots find and avoid storm cells rather than fly through them.

Pilots also keep a wide safety margin. FAA guidance (Aeronautical Information Manual 7-1-27) tells crews to avoid any thunderstorm identified as severe or giving an intense radar echo by at least 20 miles, because hail and violent turbulence can reach far beyond the visible cloud.

Why takeoff and landing are the sensitive phases

Takeoff and landing are the times when aircraft are most exposed to wind shear and microbursts, so departures will be held until the storm cell clears the airfield even if the rain looks light.

Cruising flights, by contrast, simply route around the weather system, which is why your flight can be grounded by a storm while others pass overhead.

Can planes take off in a thunderstorm?

Planes usually don't take off during a storm, especially if one is directly overhead, and this is where most storm delays start. When lightning is detected within about 5 miles of an airport, ground operations stop completely.

Fuelling, baggage loading, boarding via outdoor stairs, and pushback are all suspended until the strikes move away, usually for at least 30 minutes after the last nearby one, because the people at risk are the ground crew, not the aircraft.

Can planes land in a thunderstorm?

Yes, planes can land in thunderstorms, but pilots will delay the approach, enter a holding pattern, or divert rather than land through an active storm cell. Why do planes get diverted in storms? Or delayed? The risks near the runway are the same ones that hold departures: wind shear, microbursts, and reduced visibility in heavy rain.

If conditions exceed the aircraft's limits, the plane waits in the air or lands somewhere else. A go-around feels alarming from seat 23F, but it is a routine, practised manoeuvre and a sign the system is working.

Why do thunderstorms delay flights, and who makes the decision?

When a storm system is near an airport, the airline works with air traffic control to decide whether to issue delays and cancellations. They first consider basic safety thresholds for maximum wind speed and visibility, and if the storm exceeds these limits, the flight will be held or called off completely.

Next, the airline brings in flight dispatchers, meteorologists, and pilots to assess whether the flight is safe for passengers and crew. If the storm is fast-moving, a delay is usually enough, but a flight will be cancelled if the storm poses too great a risk or the schedule can't absorb the wait.

Planes already in the air work closely with air traffic control on rerouting around the storm cell or timing their approach. Depending on runway conditions, visibility, and ground crew safety, a flight may be diverted to another airport if fuel is running low, or it may circle until landing conditions improve. Both situations can lead to significant delays or even get your flight cancelled. A long delay or diversion can also cause you to miss a connecting flight.

Which global airports have the most storm-related delays?

Geographic location, traffic volume, and seasonal weather patterns all shape how badly storms hit an airport.

In the UK and across all of Europe, thunderstorms are most common in the warmer months. Rising temperatures increase the chances of convective weather that can disrupt flights.

Among major hubs in the US, the UK, and Europe, these see the most weather disruption.

1. Heathrow Airport (LHR) runs so close to full capacity that any bad weather, more often high winds and low visibility than summer thunderstorms, quickly turns into long delays and cancellations.
2. Amsterdam Schiphol Airport (AMS) is prone to weather delays thanks to its exposed coastal location and high traffic volume.
3. Frankfurt Airport (FRA) is one of Europe's busiest airports and suffers storm disruption, particularly in the summer months.
4. Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport (ATL) sits in the southeastern US and sees an especially high number of storms during spring and summer.
5. Chicago O'Hare International Airport (ORD) regularly ranks among the worst in the US for weather-related delays and cancellations, and as one of the world's busiest airports for aircraft movements, one storm over Chicago ripples across the whole network.
6. Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport (DFW) has seen hundreds of flight disruptions during single spring storm systems, and it is vulnerable to thunderstorms throughout the year.

Can you get compensation for a storm delay?

Sometimes. Your rights under UK261 (and EU261 rules for flights departing the EU) often don’t cover severe weather. It usually counts as an extraordinary circumstance, which means the airline doesn't owe cash compensation for a delay or cancellation the storm itself caused.

But your other rights never go away. On flights covered by these rules, the airline must still provide care during a long delay, meaning meals, communication, and a hotel if you're stuck overnight, and re-routing or a refund for flight cancellations.

Here's the catch airlines rarely explain. If the storm cleared hours before departure but your flight was delayed because the crew or aircraft were out of position, or other airlines were flying while yours wasn't, the disruption may be down to the airline's own operations.

AirAdvisor has helped more than 750,000 passengers since 2017, and weather cases where the airline blamed the storm too broadly are among the claims we win most often.

What should you do if you fly through a storm?

Most importantly, listen to and trust the directions given by the flight crew, because they handle these situations for a living. When they tell you to stay seated with your seat belt fastened, follow their instructions.

— Anton Radchenko, Founder & CEO of AirAdvisor

In fact, a good rule of thumb is to keep your seatbelt fastened whenever seated, even with the sign off. Injuries from turbulence almost always happen to unbelted passengers.

If turbulence frightens you, practise a breathing technique before you fly, so you know exactly what to do once the bouncing starts, and secure your personal belongings before it does.

Beyond that, remember that flying is safer now than ever, and while a storm might fray your nerves, the pilot, air traffic control, and the aircraft itself are all built for it. If a storm does disrupt your trip, it helps to know your air passenger rights.

Disrupted flight?Find out if you’re owed compensation for a disrupted flight.
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