PHOENIX - With record heat in the forecast, pilots and passengers are remembering back to that 122-degree day in 1990 when it was so hot that jets couldn't take off from Sky Harbor International Airport.
Some often wonder if it could happen again. The answer, according to American Airlines, is“yes and no.”
Airplanes don’t perform as well in thin air and air gets thinner when temperatures rise. The hotter the temperatures, the longer an airplane will spend on the runway trying to get up to takeoff speed.
Pilots know exactly how much runway they need for takeoff thanks to detailed performance charts. In 1990, none of those charts went above 120 degrees.
"You could extrapolate and you could guess. [But] we don't fly passengers around on guesswork,” said Jim Tilmon, an aviation expert and former American Airlines pilot.American Airlines told ABC15 that all the performance charts for large jets have long-since been updated for higher temperatures and the airline has no worries about delays for those scheduled flights. However, not all small regional aircraft have updated charts.“Nobody had thought of taking off when the temperature was 120-some degrees.”
“If the temperatures rise to the extent that it would inhibit our calculations of weight and thrust for ‘lift’ accurately, then we cannot take off, so we may proactively delay some departures until the air temperature reduces,” said John Daley, American Airlines managing director at Phoenix Sky Harbor, in an email.
Tilmon said airplanes will still fly in extreme heat, but to do so without accurate data is not only unsafe – it’s illegal.
“You didn't want to pretend you had the right numbers and you didn't. That's called guesswork and that's called an accident...and yes, illegal,” said Tilmon.
Tilmon has a cautionary tale from many years ago when the airline industry wasn't quite as careful calculating hot weather. A discrepancy between the temperature at the tower and the temperature on the runway caused him a dicey takeoff on a hot day in Tucson.
“I'm looking down at the end of the runway and it was coming up pretty damn fast,” said Tilmon, adding that his flight crew had to turn off the air conditioning system mid-runway to find the extra power needed to get the wheels off the ground. “It was said that we made a rooster tail across the desert that we were so low.”
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Remember that asteroid that shook up the Valley a few weeks ago? {1}
Police have released some of the 911 calls that came in when the huge ball of light flew across the sky.
One woman delivering papers early in the morning called in and told a dispatcher that what she saw."wasn't like a falling star" but was instead like "a big fireball"she said. She wasn't the only one who was unsure if her eyes were deceiving her!"It was very strange,"
Another caller told a dispatcher that he sawand wanted to make sure no one was injured. Fortunately, the dispatcher had heard of a few other calls and told him it was likely a meteor."a flare go up in the air"
"Oh my God," the caller said. "I've never seen one. That was quite bright and interesting."
But quickly, hundreds more calls started coming in to 911. A dispatcher apologized for the wait time on the emergency line because so many people were reporting the light, and even explosions and shaking.
Some callers requested officers to check out their property and a firefighter called in to report what sounded like a gas main blow. The firefighter says what he heard was "much louder than fireworks" and even though they sounded far away from his location, he said they were "extremely loud".
Laura said:South Central France: more days of lots of rain and 11.5 C this morning. That's about 53 F. In short, winter weather in Florida.
Summer isn't a'cummin'in. It's like a protracted March for four months.
Konstantin said:A heat wave in Macedonia since yesterday. Today's temperatures are from 35 to 40 C , and its very hot outside in the sun. After a pretty chilly weather all the time, now dramatic temperature increase in just 24 hours. Its a shock for the body.
Laura said:Konstantin said:A heat wave in Macedonia since yesterday. Today's temperatures are from 35 to 40 C , and its very hot outside in the sun. After a pretty chilly weather all the time, now dramatic temperature increase in just 24 hours. Its a shock for the body.
I heard that there was a stream of blasting hot air and dust sweeping over the Adriatic from Africa.
13 C this morning. Spells of sun intermittent with wind and rain. Lots of black clouds piling up and sweeping over. Still only 20-22 right now and this is supposed to be the hottest part of the day.
Laura said:I heard that there was a stream of blasting hot air and dust sweeping over the Adriatic from Africa.
Severe Weather Europe
18 mins · Ljubljana, Slovenia ·
TORNADO over Pančevo, Serbia! WOW! AMAZING view of the Pančevo, Serbia tornadic supercell - look at the massive wall cloud with the tornado underneath it! WOW! Amazing video! Source: IdoInfo.hu -
Pancevo razorni tornado "Aleksandar Vučić"
Another VIDEO of the Tornado
https://www.facebook.com/severeweatherEU/videos/1828120927411000/
https://www.facebook.com/severeweatherEU/posts/1828130460743380 said:The tornado
The Hail
1hr and 40mins of rear camera footage condensed into a 4 minute clip. Storm motion that day was 50 miles per hour.
Filmed along highway 2 in north eastern Montana
Heavy rain fell Saturday evening in Wichita, Kansas creating street flooding which stalled out motorists.
Shot Description