A storm is a mass of air in which the pressure is lower than the air surrounding it. In fact, in some English speaking countries, storms are also termed low pressure centres.
When we come across a high pressure situation, we call it an anticyclone. Storms, on the contrary, are areas characterised by low atmospheric pressure, to which gales are associated, as well as a notable decrease in temperature and the appearance of rain, snow or hail, in some cases.
We have already mentioned storms are, essentially, areas in which the atmospheric pressure is lower than the air circulating around them.
Well, its formation is related to the movement of two air masses, a cold and a warmer one. Whereas warm air will climb, cold masses go down; this decreases pressure and creates a low pressure area.
Commercial aeroplanes can fly totally safely within a storm; The main reason in avoiding them being to make the flight as comfortable and relaxing as possible for passengers.
An interesting fact.- The commercial aeroplanes used at the moment can even fly within a hurricane so there’s no reason to panic.
If we fly within a storm we will be under IMC, i.e., under instrumental meteorological conditions.
Under these meteorological conditions, pilots only have to follow directions from their flight instruments as the scarce visual references they have could be misleading and make them suffer a sensory illusion.
Instrument flight is practised in one of the last stages of training, in the MEP/IR course. For safety reasons, flights in real IMC conditions are only performed in the simulator.
Knowing what a storm is and how it is formed is essential for airlines so that they can plan their routes away from undesirable meteorology.
Additionally, it is important to bear in mind commercial aeroplanes are equipped with a meteorological radar so pilots can ”see” the areas with severe precipitation and request adjustments to their routes from air controllers.
We hope you’ve found this article interesting. If you’d like to find out what a METAR is and what it’s for, what icing on aeroplanes’ is or if you’d like to know more about Earth’s atmosphere, we suggest you take a look at our aviation blog.
