Recently in weather Category

As much as people like to talk about it, it seems most really don't care much about the weather.  At least not enough to learn about it.  Every Spring and Autumn in Northern California, we tend to get some occasional thunderstorms. Without fail, someone always tells me, "we never get thunderstorms here."  When they say that, it tells me they can only recognize a thunderstorm when they see lightning.  And they don't watch the sky very often.

Most city-dwellers can get away with not knowing or caring about the weather like that.  If you're a pilot, you probably (hopefully!) know how to recognize a thunderstorm.  If you want to be a pilot, you'll have to learn.

It's officially Summer in the northern hemisphere.  On June 21, the first day of Summer, we had thunderstorms here in San Jose and elsewhere in Northern California, some with frequent lightning.  We even saw one that had a small funnel cloud.  While we usually have some minor thunderstorms in the Bay Area at times from Spring to Fall, these conditions were things we see maybe once every 5-10 years.  So that's rare here.

Some of us pilots stayed on the ground to watch the storm from safety.  We also noticed that some were flying around the pattern while thunderstorms with active lightning were within 5 miles of the field.  Here in California, we don't often get practice exercising judgment about thunderstorms.  But it really is important.  While you wouldn't hesitate to drive a car under a thunderstorm, flying a light aircraft near one is a different story.  It's a case where we have to know the difference and exercise appropriate judgment.  So let's talk about the safety issues behind it.