Severe weather Thursday morning forced San Francisco International Airport to activate a ground delay program, canceling dozens of flights and affecting more than 100 others as an atmospheric river brought heavy rain and damaging winds to the Bay Area.
The Federal Aviation Administration placed SFO under a ground delay program beginning at 7 a.m. PST due to local weather conditions, according to airport officials. The program remained in effect through 11:59 p.m. Thursday.
A total of 46 flights were canceled, representing 4 percent of all operations at the airport, said Doug Yakel, an SFO spokesperson. An additional 113 flights were delayed, accounting for 10 percent of scheduled flights, but FlightAware.com (opens in new tab) later listed 141 total flight delays, or just over 12 percent of scheduled flights.
The average delay was around 102 minutes, though earlier in the morning delays were estimated at 20 minutes, focused mainly on short-haul West Coast flights, Yakel said.
The atmospheric river’s strong winds forced airport officials Wednesday to alter runway configurations from the standard setup. The alternative configuration is less efficient and contributed to the cascading delays and cancellations beyond those caused by the weather system alone.
According to an FAA ground delay program advisory issued Thursday, the maximum delay reached 188 minutes. The program applied to flights arriving from across the continental United States as well as select Canadian airports, including Edmonton, Montreal and Calgary.
The National Weather Service issued a high wind warning for the North Bay coast through 10 a.m. today, as well as the Marin hills, San Francisco and San Mateo coast, warning of 20 to 30 mph winds with gusts up to 60 mph. Areas of the East Bay and towns south of San Francisco were expected to be affected through 4 p.m. today.
“We recommend travelers contact their airline directly for the status of their flight,” Yakel said Wednesday afternoon, ahead of today’s storm.
This is a developing story.