Weather Hazards: Fronts, Thunderstorms, Icing, Fog, and Wind

• Episode: core-12
• Version: 0.2.2
• Source verification: FAA sources, exact locators, listener-facing study links, and source-tagged spoken passages are complete; source-relevance review is complete for version 0.2.2, and human editorial approval is recorded.

In this episode

• Follow four reusable roles in a hypothetical multi-day VFR plan: the planned mountain corridor, western-Plains stopover, Wisconsin primary, and Wisconsin alternate. The scenario is a study framework, not a live briefing or recommended route.
• Picture a surface front symbol as the bottom reference of a sloping three-dimensional boundary, then compare the proposed route and timing with observed and forecast weather around it.
• Use northern California coastal or inland fog, western terrain and wind, Plains frontal convection, and Wisconsin arrival conditions to introduce each term when it becomes useful.
• Apply the same icing-overlap test to separate western-terrain and Plains-front cross-sections so each route segment leads to its own decision.
• Use delayed data-linked radar for strategic thunderstorm avoidance, never as the sole means for negotiating a tactical path through a convective area.
• Translate the analysis into a specific conservative choice: later departure, different corridor, stop before the front, or a destination outside fog and convective outflow with a more favorable runway.

Study materials and visual aids

• Private Pilot ACS — hazardous weather and flight decisions
• PHAK Chapter 12 — fronts and air masses
• PHAK Chapter 12 — surface-front line as a planning reference
• PHAK Chapter 12 — front boundary and warm-front formation
• PHAK Chapter 12 — cold-front cross-section and route example
• PHAK Chapter 12 — stationary and occluded fronts
• Aviation Weather Handbook — surface signs of a front
• Aviation Weather Handbook — a front's sloping vertical structure
• Aviation Weather Handbook — radiation-fog factors
• Aviation Weather Handbook — thunderstorm ingredients and life cycle
• Aviation Weather Handbook — mature-stage downdraft and gust front
• Aviation Weather Handbook — downburst and microburst diagrams
• Aviation Weather Handbook — thunderstorm avoidance and delayed data-linked radar
• Aviation Weather Handbook — divert and wait guidance
• Aviation Weather Handbook — supercooled water and structural icing
• Aviation Weather Handbook — icing factors
• Aviation Weather Handbook — icing in a route cross-section
• Aviation Weather Handbook — aerodynamic and system effects of icing
• Aviation Weather Handbook — fog and radiation fog
• Aviation Weather Handbook — advection fog
• Aviation Weather Handbook — upslope fog
• Aviation Weather Handbook — frontal fog
• Aviation Weather Handbook — steam fog
• PHAK Chapter 12 — atmospheric circulation and wind
• PHAK Chapter 12 — terrain and obstruction effects on wind
• Aviation Weather Handbook — mountain-wave downdrafts and rotors
• Aeronautical Information Manual — mountain-wave forecast limits
• PHAK Chapter 12 — low-level wind shear and microbursts
• Airplane Flying Handbook — runway wind components
• Airplane Flying Handbook — crosswind component chart and capability

How to use the sources

Start with the PHAK pages for the front, wind, terrain, and wind-shear mental models used along the route. Use the current Aviation Weather Handbook pages for the scenario's mountain-wave, fog, icing, thunderstorm, and delayed-radar questions, and the AIM for the localized forecast limits of mountain-wave activity. Use the ACS page to test whether each proposed leg ends in a named delay, corridor, stopover, or destination decision. The Airplane Flying Handbook links supply complementary runway-component context; aircraft-specific values and procedures belong to the current POH or AFM for the airplane being flown.

Correction status

Corrections and source updates are recorded in the episode production log before a revised version is published. Submit a source correction through the repository issue form or email [email protected]. Do not send credentials, private documents, or personal flight information.