Use This Website to Predict Potential Turbulence on Your Next Flight.
When it comes to pre-flight preparation, frequent (or even casual) passengers tend to fall into one of two different groups. Some people take the time and effort to get as much information as possible about their upcoming flight as possible – everything from checking the weather forecast at the departure and arrival locations to peeking at the map lounge on the aircraft to view age information and aircraft history.
Whether it’s because they are afraid of flying, passionate about aviation, or just want to know what’s ahead, there is a decent amount of information if you know where (and want) to find it.
And then there are people who fly unnoticed, show up at the airport and hope for the best. They may have chosen to receive text messages or emails about flight delays or cancellations, but otherwise they may well start the trip with a wing and prayer *.
If you like getting all the details about your flight ahead of time, you might be interested in a new website that predicts if an upcoming flight has a decent chance of turbulence. Here’s what you need to know.
How to use Turbli, a turbulence prediction website
It’s called Turbli and we first spotted it on the One Mile at a Time travel site (which is not affiliated with Turbli). Using NOAA / NWS forecasts that pilots use to plan flights, Turbli provides passengers with turbulence forecasts 36 hours in advance.
To use it, enter your starting point and destination, and indicate if your flight will be today or tomorrow. Turbli will then select all flights that match this description and after you select yours, it will make forecasts for your flight based on the weather and aircraft.
Things to remember about this tool
Forecasts for the upcoming flight are presented in the form of a fairly detailed report with diagrams and lots of numbers. It not only predicts which parts of your flight (if any) might be most affected by turbulence, but it also predicts the smoothness of your takeoff and landing.
While Turbli can be a source of hours of entertainment for data and / or aviation enthusiasts, or hours of horror and anxiety for those fearing turbulence, it’s important to remember that these are projections and that there are many other factors. which contribute to the interruption of the flight.
That being said, if you are prone to air sickness (or anxiety attacks) during turbulent flights, you can at least board the flight with some idea of what you might be experiencing. Or maybe you don’t want to know, in which case Turbli may not be the right fit for you.
* Of course, there is nothing wrong with that. In addition, this type of information has been available to passengers for only a tiny fraction of the history of commercial air travel. And to be honest, based solely on vintage ads and pop culture imagery, people seemed pretty happy on airplanes around the middle of the last century: smoking cigarettes, sipping Alexanders brandy, and refueling their perfectly cooked steaks using real silverware. In the coach.