Anyone from Atlanta/Storm Helena

Just got notification from Southwest airlines that flights may be affected going through Atlanta on Friday due to Winter Storm Helena. What are the local weather forecasters predicting? Should we try to change our flight? We are scheduled to land in Atlanta at about 6:30 PM.

SWA issued a weather waiver for ATL:

https://www.southwest.com/html/advisories/swa_travel_advisory_2017041483576627624.html

Just follow the instructions to change your flights to ones that don't connect through ATL. Because of the weather waiver there won't be a charge, even if your original ticket was not changable for free.

The forecasters are predicting the wintry mix will start Friday night into Saturday. It's not really supposed to be widespread precipitation until early Saturday morning. BUT, our forecasters are not known for being accurate or nimble with their forecast as we saw with Snowmageddon in 2014.

Here's a link to one of our news station's forecast. Their video forecast of what's to come is on the side of the screen.

http://www.cbs46.com/weather

Just got notification from Southwest airlines that flights may be affected going through Atlanta on Friday due to Winter Storm Helena. What are the local weather forecasters predicting? Should we try to change our flight? We are scheduled to land in Atlanta at about 6:30 PM.

When do you sail and where do you sail from?

If you are leaving on Sat then I would try to get to Atlanta ASAP in the day in order to get out. Do not wait to change your flights, do it now! By 6:30 the storm will be here and it may be worse around the airport than north suburbs, but what the other poster said it is a crapshoot, but change your flights ASAP.

Just a general comment about weather and specific airports:

The general advice to consider using the waiver to rebook so you don't connect at ATL is good, but there are still risks.

You might get rerouted and connect through another city, BUT if your crew or aircraft are scheduled to go through ATL before getting to your connecting city, you could still be impacted negatively.

I've sat in the Atlanta airport (because I primarily fly Delta) multiple times and waited on a flight delayed due to weather, and listened to pax around me complain, "They are lying to us, look outside, the sun is shining, the weather is fine, it must just be that the flight isn't sold out so they want to cancel it, OMG they are lying to us" or some other such nonsense. What they don't comprehend is that their crew and aircraft have to arrive at ATL from somewhere else first, and "somewhere else" might be experiencing a blizzard or thunderstorms. That means the outbound flight IS indeed delayed due to weather, even though the weather there is fine. I also sat at FLL once waiting to depart, and we had to wait about 90 minutes so the crew could meet their mandatory crew rest requirement; they had arrived very late the night before because of a weather delay at wherever their inbound flight originated. So again, bright sunsine-y day in south Florida but the delay was caused by weather the night before somewhere in the northeast.

Bottom line: Bad weather anywhere in the country can potentially affect flights anywhere else in the country.

Waterbug is correct about the flight delays due to weather elsewhere. I felt sorry for people around the country waiting for aircraft coming in from SLC the other day. It was the first time in years that everything was shut down do to the huge snowstorm we had - it stalled over Utah rather than moving like it was predicted. (I did my first 270 degree slide that night coming home from work :eek: ) SLC is normally a great winter airport, but they could not keep up with the volume of snow coming down. Flights waited on the tarmac for up to 3 hours before going back to the gate to wait and eventually cancel. Now, they had to get all those aircraft and people sent out the next morning when it re-opened - imagine all those flights waiting for those aircraft. I could imagine people in ATL and LAX complaining about the flight delays because it was "sunny and warm" :rolleyes:

A friend of a friend did a little video of her overnight wait that night - the McDonalds in terminal 2 stayed open, so she was talking to the people waiting in line at 2am to get some food - the line went down the hallway!!!