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Thunderstorms Can Cause Air Turbulence Up to 55 Miles Away from the Source

The effects of weather disturbances and resulting turbulence can be widespread. Airplane passengers might want to pay more attention to that fasten-seatbelt sign.

Please remain seated with your seatbelt fastened.
Please remain seated with your seatbelt fastened. | urbazon/E+/Getty Images

Airplane turbulence causes more than spilled drinks and frayed nerves.

Injuries from turbulence are rare, but they happen. From 2009 to 2021, 146 airline passengers and crew members were seriously injured by turbulence, according to the Federal Aviation Administration. In an extreme example, in May 2024, a Singapore Airlines flight dropped 6000 feet in three minutes, sending objects ricocheting through the cabin, dismounting fixtures in the ceiling, and causing one passenger death. As climate change leads to more frequent and more intense extreme weather, incidents of turbulence are expected to increase. 

Thunderstorms are a major cause of air turbulence. Recently, a team of meteorologists used a trove of data points to gauge how far from a storm one should expect some bumps. The answer: several miles farther away than pilots’ guidelines indicate, their research suggests.  

The team used more than 200 million turbulence reports collected from flights from 2009 to 2017 and crossed them with radar data to calculate the planes’ proximity to thunderstorms. Their findings, published in the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, indicate that an increased risk of turbulence starts 55 miles away from a storm. Risk doubles when compared to normal weather patterns, 43 miles from a storm. 

The current Federal Aviation Administration guideline tells pilots to avoid a proximity of 20 miles to a storm. 

The researchers told The New York Times that adjusting to the problem is not as simple as rerouting planes to give storms a wider berth. The skies are crowded, after all. But there is one simple, actionable item from their findings: Pilots could tell people to fasten their seatbelts and return their tray tables to an upright position earlier when a storm is on the horizon. Then, as they fly closer to the disturbance and their odds of turbulence increase, passengers will be more prepared. 

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