9-2 Weather Hazards
The weather hazard that poses the greatest risk to aviation operations in my opinion is the occurrence of a microburst. In my opinion this is one of the deadliest and hardest challenges to overcome. I chose this hazard because in many different rounds of simulator training I have participated in, a severe microburst is the hardest condition to land in. A microburst can occur suddenly and needs to be reacted to immediately to safely avoid this phenomenon. A microburst is a severe type of low-level wind shear associated with convective precipitation (FAA, 2016). Wind shear is a when a sudden drastic change in wind speed and or direction in a very small area (FAA, 2016). For a microburst to occur several parameters are required: instability, high precipitable weather, dry air in the mid-levels, and strong winds in the dry layer (National Weather Service, n.d.). Microbursts can be life threatening, especially to aviation operations; recorded events in the past have shown wind speed...