Aviation weather by region
The sky is not the same everywhere. Each region briefs for a different set of hazards, in a different season, from a different official service — here is what to expect, and where the authoritative report comes from.
All regions
North America
Continental extremes in one airspace: summer squall lines across the Midwest, freezing rain and de-icing queues from November, and Pacific coastal fog that closes approaches on clear-looking mornings.
Western Europe
A maritime climate whose defining problems are visibility and wind rather than convection: radiation fog at inland hubs, autumn and winter gales that push crosswinds past limits, and low stratus that sits for days.
Northern Europe
Long winters dominate the operation: contaminated runways, holdover-time arithmetic, freezing drizzle in the approach and daylight measured in hours rather than a whole working day.
The Mediterranean
Terrain and sea meet to make wind the main story — mistral, bora, meltemi and the funnelled crosswinds of the Aegean — with autumn convection and Saharan dust arriving on the same southerly flow.
The Middle East
Heat and dust set the limits: performance-critical summer temperatures, blowing dust that drops visibility to a few hundred metres within minutes, and shallow overnight fog at coastal hubs.
South Asia
The southwest monsoon dominates half the year, with heavy rain, low ceilings and reduced visibility, while winter brings the dense radiation fog that regularly closes northern Indian airports at dawn.
Southeast Asia
Convection every afternoon rather than once a season: towering cumulonimbus, tropical cyclones from the Pacific, low-level windshear on approach and haze that closes airports for weeks in some years.
East Asia
Typhoon season, the strongest jet stream on the planet and the clear-air turbulence that comes with it, plus spring dust transported from the interior across busy northern approaches.
Oceania
Mountain wave and rotor over the Southern Alps, roaring-forties wind at exposed coastal airports, summer convection over the Australian interior and morning fog in the southern basins.
South America
The Andes generate wave and severe mechanical turbulence beside some of the world’s highest airports, while the subtropical plain produces intense summer convection and the region carries a live volcanic ash risk.
Africa
Harmattan dust reduces visibility across West Africa for months, the intertropical convergence zone drags a belt of severe storms north and south with the seasons, and coverage of the reports themselves varies by state.
The North Atlantic and Arctic
Long overwater legs with few alternates, persistent airframe icing in the climb and descent, rapidly deepening lows and an ash risk that has already closed the airspace once in living memory.