Weather delays

[Unknown98]

I wanted to start a conversation about weather delays just to see what kind of ideas or things we can come up with. Weather statuses for each airport are currently in the works and the next step is to make those statuses affect flights into/out of the airports.

Probably the biggest issue is the stack up of delays, for example if flight 1 is delayed 30 mins then flights 2+ will also be pushed back 30 mins (unless you have extra turnaround time or leave extra time between flights). I want it to be realistic but not overly complicated or micro-management-y

[ALT2870]

What are you looking for exactly? Just some delay times for different types of weather. The best way to go about that is have a range of times like CA used to and the system randomly picks a time. Also, during a major weather event, does the airport shut down? If you'd like, I can get a rough draft of times vs weather. Where are you going to pull weather from?

[Frenchie]

I think the simplest form of representation of weather delay does take its base from Cyber Airlines. Essentially, when you would quick-start a flight (unplanned), you would get a randomly assigned delay departure (categorized based on the type of weather affecting the airport).

As for planned flights, you could probably just "extend" the turn around time based on the delay.

One issue I do see arising down the line however would be the de-syncing of the route (the plane would not be able to arrive in time at the original airport with the accumulation of delays, and wouldn't be able to restart the whole route loop automatically).

[Unknown98]

Yeah if the route is delayed to the point where it does not return to the origin airport in time to restart the route, basically what will happen is it will skip a day and then return to normal the next day.

If there is a major weather event, I could attempt to program airports to shut down. That would be quite a task however because all the routes that operate to that airport would then be in limbo.

@Alt weather is being pulled from www.openweathermap.org

[ALT2870]

Would it be at all possible to have the delay incur when the flight is say 30 minutes from landing? After all, and this was a gripe of CA, if you sent your aircraft on a long haul flight, the weather will certainly change. If not, here are two options:

1.) Use the forecast weather to affect the flight. For example, if the flights is 5 hours, use the forecast that is for 5 hours from now.
2.) Once the aircraft lands, apply the delay.

Unk, if you can give me a list of weather conditions, I would certainly be more then happy to compile a list for the community viewing of delay times.

[Unknown98]

That's a good point. I don't want to apply a delay upon take-off if weather at the destination is poor, because it will likely change by landing time. Getting the forecast at the destination and trying to apply a delay to the flight time based on that will probably be difficult... What I can do though is check the weather conditions on landing. If a delay is required, simply add the delay to the turnaround time. Not necessarily the most realistic option but much simpler to do in the back-end. I can probably even make some changes to the display to make it appear as if the aircraft is still en-route even though technically it has landed.

It's quite a list:
(https://openweathermap.org/weather-conditions)

Group 2xx: Thunderstorm
ID Meaning Icon
200 thunderstorm with light rain 11d
201 thunderstorm with rain 11d
202 thunderstorm with heavy rain 11d
210 light thunderstorm 11d
211 thunderstorm 11d
212 heavy thunderstorm 11d
221 ragged thunderstorm 11d
230 thunderstorm with light drizzle 11d
231 thunderstorm with drizzle 11d
232 thunderstorm with heavy drizzle 11d

Group 3xx: Drizzle
ID Meaning Icon
300 light intensity drizzle 09d
301 drizzle 09d
302 heavy intensity drizzle 09d
310 light intensity drizzle rain 09d
311 drizzle rain 09d
312 heavy intensity drizzle rain 09d
313 shower rain and drizzle 09d
314 heavy shower rain and drizzle 09d
321 shower drizzle 09d

Group 5xx: Rain
ID Meaning Icon
500 light rain 10d
501 moderate rain 10d
502 heavy intensity rain 10d
503 very heavy rain 10d
504 extreme rain 10d
511 freezing rain 13d
520 light intensity shower rain 09d
521 shower rain 09d
522 heavy intensity shower rain 09d
531 ragged shower rain 09d

Group 6xx: Snow
ID Meaning Icon
600 light snow 13d
601 snow 13d
602 heavy snow 13d
611 sleet 13d
612 shower sleet 13d
615 light rain and snow 13d
616 rain and snow 13d
620 light shower snow 13d
621 shower snow 13d
622 heavy shower snow 13d

Group 7xx: Atmosphere
ID Meaning Icon
701 mist 50d
711 smoke 50d
721 haze 50d
731 sand, dust whirls 50d
741 fog 50d
751 sand 50d
761 dust 50d
762 volcanic ash 50d
771 squalls 50d
781 tornado 50d
Group 800: Clear
ID Meaning Icon
800 clear sky 01d  01n

Group 80x: Clouds
ID Meaning Icon
801 few clouds 02d  02n
802 scattered clouds 03d  03n
803 broken clouds 04d  04n
804 overcast clouds 04d  04n

Group 90x: Extreme
ID Meaning
900 tornado
901 tropical storm
902 hurricane
903 cold
904 hot
905 windy
906 hail

Group 9xx: Additional
ID Meaning
951 calm
952 light breeze
953 gentle breeze
954 moderate breeze
955 fresh breeze
956 strong breeze
957 high wind, near gale
958 gale
959 severe gale
960 storm
961 violent storm
962 hurricane

[ALT2870]

That is what I was looking for on their site but couldn't find it. I'll get a list going.

[ALT2870]

Didn't format from the Excel sheet but you get the idea.

Weather Min Delay Max Delay
thunderstorm with light rain 30 60
thunderstorm with rain 60 90
thunderstorm with heavy rain 90 120
light thunderstorm 30 45
thunderstorm 60 120
heavy thunderstorm 120 240
ragged thunderstorm 240 360
thunderstorm with light drizzle 30 60
thunderstorm with drizzle 60 90
thunderstorm with heavy drizzle 90 120



light intensity drizzle 0 5
drizzle 0 10
heavy intensity drizzle 0 15
light intensity drizzle rain 0 5
drizzle rain 0 10
heavy intensity drizzle rain 0 15
shower rain and drizzle 0 5
heavy shower rain and drizzle 0 15
shower drizzle 0 10



light rain 0 5
moderate rain 0 10
heavy intensity rain 5 15
very heavy rain 10 20
extreme rain 20 30
freezing rain 30 60
light intensity shower rain 0 5
shower rain 0 10
heavy intensity shower rain 5 15
ragged shower rain 10 20



light snow 0 10
snow 10 30
heavy snow 30 90
sleet 30 90
shower sleet 15 45
light rain and snow 0 10
rain and snow 10 30
light shower snow 0 10
shower snow 10 30
heavy shower snow 30 60



mist 0 60
smoke 0 60
haze 0 60
sand, dust whirls 0 60
fog 0 120
sand 0 120
dust 0 120
volcanic ash 240 360 or closed
squalls 240 360 or closed
tornado 60 120 or closed


clear sky 0 0



few clouds 0 0
scattered clouds 0 0
broken clouds 0 0
overcast clouds 0 15



tornado 60 120 or closed
tropical storm 60 360 or closed
hurricane 1440 2880 or closed
cold 0 0
hot 0 0
windy 30 60
hail 60 120



calm 0 0
light breeze 0 0
gentle breeze 0 0
moderate breeze 0 15
fresh breeze 5 20
strong breeze 10 35
high wind, near gale 30 60
gale 60 120
severe gale 120 360 or closed
storm 60 120
violent storm 120 360 or closed
hurricane 1440 2880 or closed

[Unknown98]

Awesome alt! What does everyone think of those times?

Only thing I have a concern with is conditions like mist & haze. I remember we had issues with haze in CA. In real life does something like haze affect airports all too much? Some places have nearly constant haze. I'm no pilot so I'm just curious as to how it is in the real world.

[ALT2870]

Some conditions are really tricky. Like you said about haze, it's truly a case by case basis. Earlier this year we had have but you could easily see 5 or so miles so not a problem, but sometimes it could get thick enough your visibility is limited.

In the end I tried to meeting in the middle as much as possible. I didn't want unreasonable times. The only exception was a hurricane which is anywhere from one to two days which makes sense.