Weather prediction could ease some delays

In a new study conducted by WeatherBill; a weather-risk management outfit based in San Francisco, California, USA , it has been shown that there may be hope in calculating how weather patterns averaged out over 30 years along with seasonal averages can compare with the present outside temperature to create a reliable figure.

Chief executive officer of WeatherBill David Freidburg says, “We can’t control the weather, but now we can do a better job understanding the relationship between weather and flight delays.” Over 21 million flights were studied for the period between 2003-2007 along with long term weather data and found averages for all 54 airports included in the study.

Using regressive analysis, WeatherBill was able to estimate each airport’s sensitivity to weather delays, and averaged slightly over 50 percent of airports studied experienced delays due predominantly to precipitation as opposed to temperature variations.

Friedberg continued, “If you think about what’s normal for a particular airport, say San Francisco, it expects a lot of rain in spring but very little in summer. The operation is not set up for it — the equipment might not be ready, the (dispatch) crew might not be prepared, and the ground crew might not be prepared. Delays become compounded. On a seasonal basis, the further you deviate from normal, the stronger the impact it has.”