The NE had cancellations of airplane flights yeserday due to the smoke. It may be some airpors will be below landing minimums for some aircraft or low time pilots. Also many locations auto traffic slowed as well. This smoke problem will occurr at various locations through out the northern part of the US this summer. Just depends on how the upper winds will move from week to week. If Amtrak had a surge fleet now it could serve many otherwise stranded residents.
NY & New England now who next?
This is not going to be just a problem this year. Unless a drastic change in the weather these smoke alerts will happen for next few summers.
It’s also possible that many of these cancelled flights went to destinations that were never served by Amtrak so even if Amtrak could afford the luxury of a surge fleet it still couldn’t serve those locales.
A mission group from our church were flying back from Puerto Rico through NYC. Daytime flight from NYC postponed to nighttime to be able to fly. Flew to Chicago, and were bussed back here rather than flying here as originally planned. So busses picked up the slack.
No more so than fog does. While what was broadcast on TV is bad, it is no where near as bad as fog can be. I have lived/worked in both Cincinnati and Pittsburgh in the early Fall of the year - the time when the various rivers retain the Summer time heat and the near freezing Fall nights create sever ‘River Fog’; heat generated water vapor from the warm rivers entering the atmosphere in the river valleys - virtually PACKING the valleys full of fog in the early morning hours and until such time as the Sun is able to rise and burn the fog off.
The only place fog affects Main Line railroading is when trains for rules compliance reasons must operate at Restricted Speed - 1/2 the range of vision and not exceeding 20 MPH. Fog shortens the range of vision.
Clear signal indications convey the authority to operate at maximum authorized speed to the next signal. Approach signal indications convey authority to reduce speed and approach the next signal PREPARED TO STOP unless that signal can be observed as conveying an indication that is not STOP or Restricted Proceed.
A friend from north Jersey today told me the air there has been color coded. The last three days, red. Today and tomorrow, orange. Sunday, yellow. When she left her office on Tuesday, she thought the building next door was on fire, was going to flag down a cop, then realized smoke was everywhere. Today wearing mask outside but not inside. Winds are carrying the smoke into Michigan now. She said Brace yourself for red day.
Clatification. These times are as being Captain on that type aircraft.
CAT 2 and CAT 3 landing minimums are requiring more flight time for the Captain.
Back in my day had to have 500 hours as Captain in that type before allowed to make CAT 3 landings. It may have changed for some airlines.
That doesn’t work either. The closest hub cities to NYC are Boston (3hr 22m, not including travel time to the nearest Amtrak station and wait time for a train) and DC (2hr 55m). If you’re delayed less than five hours, you’re better off staying put and waiting it out. Really significant delays are tied to weather systems large enough to be impacting two or three of those hub cities at the same time too.
Hubs are spread out at ranges that are specifically tied to maximize the flight distances, which works against the idea of moving between hubs. That’s the basis of the hub and spoke model. As an example:
You’re at Newark and your United flight to Los Angeles is delayed six hours because of thunderstorms. LGA and JFK are seeing the same delays. The system is moving southwest to northeast. The next closest United hub is Dulles, four hours and 43 minutes away (door to door), assuming you leave right now this second. Dulles is still seeing residual delays of 90 minutes from the same storm system moving off. Even with the delays, you won’t be able to make it to Dulles in time to make it for the last departure for the day, which means moving to Dulles is actually costs you ten hours. Or you could take the 23 hour Amtrak trip to Chicago, the next closest United hub, if you’re insane.