No. 1 today
Live forecast
The bumpiest routes today
Every six hours we fly more than a thousand busy routes through the newest weather forecast, at every departure time across the next day, and rank them by how much of the flight is in bumpy air.
today in brief
What the sky is doing today
Written from the forecast each time the board updates. Quote it with a link to this page.
the leaderboard
Today's bumpiest routes
The bar under each route is the flight from take-off to landing, coloured by the forecast for its bumpiest departure. Open a route to see every departure across the day.
out of the ordinary
Unusually bumpy today
Routes with far more bumpy air than they usually get, against four years of past forecasts for the same route. A route that is usually calm can show up here on a bumpy day long before it would reach the top ten.
by continent
The bumpiest routes on each continent
The top five in each part of the world, so a big day over one region does not hide the rest. Routes between continents have a list of their own.
the other end
The smoothest long-hauls today
Flights of 3,000 km or more with the least bumpy air in today's forecast.
where bumps come from
What makes the air bumpy
Almost every bump on this board comes from one of four things. The one behind most of today's is marked.
The jet stream
Rivers of fast wind about 10 km up, right where airliners cruise. Where the wind speed changes sharply with height, the air tumbles. There is usually no cloud to see, which is why it is called clear-air turbulence.
Thunderstorms
Storm clouds move air up and down hard, and the bumpy air reaches well beyond the cloud itself. Crews steer round the storm cells, but the air around them can still be bumpy.
Wind over mountains
Strong wind crossing a mountain range sets the air above it rippling, like water over a rock, sometimes all the way up to cruise height. The Rockies, the Andes and the Alps are known for it.
Daytime heat
Ground warmed by the sun sends bubbles of air rising through the lowest few kilometres. You feel it on the climb and the descent, mostly on summer afternoons, and rarely at cruise.
if your route is on the list
Flying one of today's bumpiest routes
A route on the list tells you the air along it is lively today. Here is what that means for your own flight.
- 01
Look at the departure times
The same route can be bumpy at noon and smooth by evening. Open the route in the leaderboard to see each departure across the day; the one ringed in green has the least bumpy air.
- 02
Keep your seatbelt on
Most passengers hurt by turbulence were not wearing a seatbelt. Keep it fastened loosely whenever you are in your seat, including when you sleep.
- 03
Sit over the wing
The middle of the plane moves the least in bumpy air and the back moves the most. A seat near the wings feels the same bumps more gently.
- 04
Check again closer to the day
A new forecast arrives every six hours, and the bumpy air moves with the weather. The forecast for your own flight is most useful in the last day before you go.
how it works
How the board is made
It is the same turbulence engine as the app, run on a fixed list of routes instead of on your flight.
- 01
A list of busy routes
Over a thousand routes between the 120 busiest airports, each flown by at least two airlines. Hops under 450 km are left out because they barely reach cruise height.
- 02
Eight departures each
Each route is flown on paper every three hours across the next day, along the great circle, at a typical cruise height and block time. Each departure gets the forecast the app would give it.
- 03
Ranked by bumpy air
Routes are ranked by the share of the flight in light or stronger bumps, averaged over the day's departures. When the weather models disagree too much about a route, it is left off. The average comes from four years of past forecasts for the same route.
Forecast data: NOAA GFS, ECMWF IFS and DWD ICON (CC BY 4.0). Route list © OpenFlights.org (ODbL).
Questions about the board
Is the bumpiest route today dangerous?
Bumpy air is uncomfortable, and it is what the seatbelt sign is for. Airliners are built for much stronger loads than anything on this list, and crews get the same kind of forecast and plan around it: a different altitude, a slightly different track, the meal service at a smoother moment. Injuries in turbulence almost always happen to people who are not strapped in.
My flight is on the list. Will it be bumpy?
Not necessarily. The board scores a route across the whole day. Your flight leaves at one time, at the altitude the crew picks, along the track the airline files. Open the route to see how its departures compare, or put your own flight into the forecaster for its real departure time.
When does the board update?
Every six hours, after each new run of the global weather model. The runs start at midnight, 6:00, 12:00 and 18:00 UTC and take about four hours to arrive, so the board changes at roughly 4:30, 10:30, 16:30 and 22:30 UTC. In between it is rebuilt every three hours, because the next 24 hours keep moving forward. The time of the last update is at the top of the page.
What does "its average" mean?
It is how much of the time the same route spent in bumpy air over four years of past forecasts, from 2022 to 2026, the data behind the Turbulence Report. "2× its average" means today's forecast has twice as much bumpy air on that route as a typical day.
Why are there no flight numbers?
The board ranks routes, and every airline flying a route shares its weather. How a single flight rides depends on when it leaves, so for your own flight use the forecaster with your flight number or departure time.
for your own flight
Know what your flight will feel like.
FlyBud gives your flight its own turbulence forecast, updated as new weather comes in, along with delays, gates and where your plane is.
The Turbulence Report: the bumpiest routes over four years Is turbulence dangerous?