Everyone in Aviation knows there is a plethora of weather hazards that pose great risks to aviation operations, but one in particular strikes me as the MOST hazardous: rain. I say rain for three reasons. For one, it is the most common risk-posing weather condition that the aviation industry has to work around. Secondly, rain is very complex, always changing, and is never black and white; often times it can be the first sign of a storm coming in as well. Sometimes it can be no problem at first, and then all of the sudden it is an extreme condition that causes an aircraft to land immediately, or an airport to stop all inbound and outbound flights. And finally, rain brings issues all across the board from aircraft icing, to runway icing, to lack of visibility for the tower and for the pilots.
Like I said, rain is often times one of the first signs of a a bad storm, but what is the first sign of rain? The atmospheric conditions required in order for rain to start forming is clouds; without clouds you cannot have rain. In fact, that exactly what clouds are! Clouds are made up of millions of water particles, and in that cloud, the water droplets start to come together to form even larger water droplets. Once the water droplets become heavy enough for the cloud to no longer be able to hold them up anymore, they fall, causing rain.
As previously stated, this rain is not simple. It can cause icing on the aircraft, icing on the runways, and icing during flight! If the temperature anywhere between the ground and the cloud the rain is falling from is at or below 32 degrees Fahrenheit, the water will freeze causing icing on any surface it touches.
Word Count: 300
Sources:
What Makes It Rain? (n.d.). SciJinks. Retrieved on March 9, 2022
from https://scijinks.gov/rain/#:~:text=Clouds%20are%20made%20of%20water,fall%20t
o%20Earth%20as%20rain.
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