What level of precip do you avoid?

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ThisIsMyHandleNow@reddit

Green removes bugs, yellow removes paint, red removes parts.

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x4457@reddit

This really isn't true, most yellow is totally fine. Yellow in a developing thunderstorm is bad, yellow out of a regular old rainy stratus layer is no big deal.

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I’ve heard this maxim, and I’ve also heard “green removes dust, yellow removes bugs, red removes paint, magenta removes parts.” That’s part of the reason I posted this, honestly — it’s a little too complex to boil down to a little saying.

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x4457@reddit

Yeah that's not really accurate as you said. I've flown through some perfectly fine, very smooth red.

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Alone_Elderberry_101@reddit

When I first learned radar in a Navajo the instructor told me. Green removes dust, yellow removes bugs, red removes paint, purple removes wings.

It was a 3 color radar 🤣

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Substantial-End-7698@reddit

So then you just have to guess where the purple is

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Alone_Elderberry_101@reddit

I was pretty lucky for it to work at all. Guessing was a major part of flying that plane.

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Darth_Atheist@reddit

And pink/purple removes lives.

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R4RaceD4Doom@reddit

Light Blue removes evidence

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Burgershot621@reddit

Take ATC point outs of precipitation with a grain of salt. Their ground based radar will paint things differently that what your onboard might. It’s often they’ll advise of moderate to extreme precip along your route but you might only be showing green or are above the weather. They can’t show tops, only relay what other people have reported. Same with the rides. It’s never a bad idea to combine all info you have at your disposal and lean towards the conservative decision.

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hazyskunk@reddit

I had a similar experience. Onboard WX was yellow, foreflight was red and ATC said they didn’t see any weather. Once I got closer and could see it, it was the don’t fuck with category. When in doubt fly around.

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imblegen@reddit

One note on this, ADSB or XM weather should not be used to discount what ATC is telling you. Unless you have an actual radar system on board, anything you’re getting on your displays is going to be delayed.

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Burgershot621@reddit

Exactly. If you have an on board system, learn how to use it effectively and correctly. It’ll give you the best real time info when used properly.

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TrouljaBoy@reddit

Just turn the gain all the way down and avoid what still shows up.

Oh wait I’m not flying freight in a clapped out Lear-35 anymore, disregard.

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randomroute350@reddit

The go, go now decision! (ex starchecker here)

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TrouljaBoy@reddit

Right now!!!

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Sad-Umpire6000@reddit

I fly in Florida. Green can change to red faster than the composite radar can keep up with it. Remember, that ADS-B/XM radar is five to 20 minutes old.

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tomdarch@reddit

That happens more often in FL than other places, but convective activity can explode in a matter of a few minutes pretty much anywhere.

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skunimatrix@reddit

I'm in St. Louis. I've seen it be 70 degrees with a 100% chance of snow with 4-6" of accumulation...

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clemsonfan101@reddit

Remember that different sources of precipitation radar that you see on EFBs color code the intensity differently. So the color is not always the same given the same storm cell. Even within ForeFlight there's a 4-color radar mode that can be turned on and off, and that will change the color coding obviously.

I recommend this article by John Zimmerman: https://airfactsjournal.com/2024/11/weather-flying-means-learning-to-read-clouds/

And I also recommend going on some flights to calibrate your eyes, meaning look at a storm visually and then on the radar mosaic on your iPad, so that you can start building a picture in your head of what picture on the iPad equates to in the real world.

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GeorgiaPilot172@reddit

It honestly depends on what is producing the precipitation. I’ve flown through red before that was from stratiform clouds and it was as smooth as clear air. I’ve also flown through green from convective activity and thought I was gonna lose the wings.

It’s can’t be boiled down to “color on radar”, you have to think of the overall weather picture and plan accordingly.

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bhalter80@reddit

Exactly this. I've been in purple that was loud and that's it but stayed clear of green and yellow that was convective without being thunderstorms.

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theheadfl@reddit

This is the only correct answer. Everyone trying to distill this down to "green ok, yellow maybe, red no" is just wrong.

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Icy-Bar-9712@reddit

I've sought out heavy precip in smooth air intentionally for some of my IR students just to show, you need to know what's going on with the air, not just see what the water is doing.

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andybader@reddit (OP)

I was wondering about this, thank you. I’m much more concerned about turbulence, downdrafts, and microbursts than I am about water, of course.

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Icy-Bar-9712@reddit

Of course! But the Venn diagram of rain intensity and shit you don't want to be in is only somewhat overlapping.

Understanding what is happening with the air is a lot more useful than seeing what is happening with the water.

It doesn't help that ATC will warn you about amd will divert you around precip, but thats because its all they have. NOT because the precip is inherently the problem its just the strongest correlation they have.

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tehmightyengineer@reddit

Yep. Just another anecdote. I've flown through green and yellow continuous bands of rain on the leading edge of a hurricane for multiple hours in a 172 near freezing with no turbulence and zero issues.

I've also flown under some green bands (multiple times, you'd think I would have learned my lesson the first time) that were the very tail end of dissipating thunderstorms and encountered up to 700 FPM descending air and moderate turbulence.

I've also visually flown around storms where the NEXRAD shows a blob of red at present location, because of time delay, processing, and whatnot, with zero issues.

In short, knowing what created the rain is far superior to any hard rules on colors of NEXRAD. But if you need some rules, I'd only really get worried about yellow on NEXRAD and never fly through red unless you're visual.

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usmcmech@reddit

Same here. I’ve flown through solid “firehose on the windshield” red and been as smooth as a calm country morning. The worst turbulence I’ve ever experienced was in VMC.

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Uffda-man@reddit

Hail.

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AIRdomination@reddit

Depends on what radar you’re talking about: previously observed or onboard? Makes a huge difference. Type of aircraft also makes a huge difference.

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Fatturtle18@reddit

I was sitting at my airport today waiting out a line of storms for a couple hours. It got down to a small circle of light green so I took off. Sky was clear over my airport and destination was 50nm away. Between the time I started the plane up it turned from green to pink(I didn’t check before taking off again. ) Once I started my turn out of the pattern I was looking at a wall of 40,00ft tops about 20nm away. Showed all pink on my gps. Just did a lap in the pattern and returned.

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randombrain@reddit

For Terminal ATC (Tower/Approach) we see six different levels of precipitation, which are named, respectively:

Light.
Moderate.
Heavy.
Heavy.
Extreme.
Extreme.

Why do we see six levels instead of four? I have no flippin' idea. Enroute only sees Moderate and above, but I don't know if they also see more levels than they have names for.

The official procedure is JO 7110.65 2–6–4: "Controllers must issue pertinent information on observed/reported weather and chaff areas to potentially affected aircraft." There is a Note: "Weather significant to the safety of aircraft includes conditions such as funnel cloud activity, lines of thunderstorms, embedded thunderstorms, large hail, wind shear, microbursts, moderate to extreme turbulence (including CAT), and light to severe icing."

That doesn't mean "any time ATC reports weather, the subtext is don't go there." If it's heavy/extreme, maybe you should avoid it, but also maybe not. The subtext is "it's on the scope, so we issue it."

If you're high enough, you may well be above the precipitation, just for example.

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Superb-Photograph529@reddit

I'm more concerned about convective activity than I am about the radar colors. I'm a lower hour PPL though, so, to be honest, I tend to try and avoid any and all precipitation. A big concern of mine is visibility which isn't always reflected in a "real world context" with just a METAR report.

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andybader@reddit (OP)

Yeah, I agree. I just got my instrument rating so I figure I will be flying around more weather than normal, and I’ll need to decide whether to coordinate with ATC when to deviate around weather (rather than just steering away from scary things whenever I feel like it).

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3Green1974@reddit

I fly a plane with radar and XM (plus whatever Foreflight uses). XM is garbage for anything except general situational awareness. It will show areas that are red but are green on the live radar from the plane. When I’m in a light single with just Foreflight, I trust what my eyes are seeing and just use the other for situational awareness.

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HungryCommittee3547@reddit

Also keep an eye on the forecast. You can fly through green no problem when it's just a band of rain, but be really careful of areas with convective outlooks. I was flying towards an area of dark green, and isolated thunderstorms were forecast in the area. Asked ATC they said "no reports last 20 minutes" Out of an abundance of caution I decided to divert around the rain. 2 minutes later a couple of lightning strikes came out of the same cell. It was never darker than dark green on radar, but that would have been REAL dicey flying even on the edge of it. When in doubt, go around it.

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Full_Wind_1966@reddit

Yellow I'll allow if on approach or takeoff, same.for green. Red ill avoid and pink is a no go.

In cruise I'll deviate for pretty much anything for passenger comfort. I'd.be comfortable going through green and small patches of yellow.

That's in a turboprop. In a 172, I wouldn't go past green

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flyboy7700@reddit

Depends on the setup. Onboard radar paints differently from ground based, and even different displays showing the same ADSB data can have different calibrations. Add timing and shadowing, and you’re almost better off using the shape of the storm as a guide.

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Anthem00@reddit

depends on type of plane. For turboprops - green is fine. yellow is mostly fine. All of this depends on what else is surrounding it. Generally try and aboid anything darker orange/red - and especially pink/purple.

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swakid8@reddit

Yellow can bite you if you aren’t careful….

Green I can work with in a 172, the yellow I would deviate around, the rest of the colors I would give plenty of distance….

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Dmackman1969@reddit

Green is still go.

Yellow is ok but be careful and have multiple backup plans.

Red is a no go, within 10 miles.

Pink is in the area, I stay home. Pink pop ups are just too dangerous, especially during the summer and they come fast.

I love having radar on my phone, on my EFIS and chatting with ATC. Makes me feel pretty safe even with the 10-20 min delays.

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rFlyingTower@reddit

This is a copy of the original post body for posterity:

What color radar makes you change your plans? I’m currently okay with anything green in a 172 but I avoid yellow and above. Is this pretty standard?

Also, how exactly does the ATC light/moderate/heavy/extreme scale match up with weather radar?Google leads me to think that “moderate” is dark green/yellow but I can’t tell for sure. Would you fly through moderate?

And is there an official procedure for when ATC reports precip to pilots? Or should I understand that if they’re reporting it, the subtext is, “hey dummy, don’t fly there”?

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