Climate change is making turbulence worse.
If you’ve noticed your flights feeling a little bumpier these days, you’re not alone. Many pilots, frequent flyers, and especially the cabin crew, who are always the last to safely buckle themselves in, have noticed it too.
Turbulence happens when two parcels of air, with different temperatures and moving at different speeds, rub up against each other. The friction between these air masses is what causes the ‘bumps’ you feel.
“What you want to remember is that air is a fluid, just like water, and the turbulence you feel is just like the waves on an ocean; the only difference is that in the sky you can’t see the waves coming,” says Katie Thompson, Bumprints’ founder and a former pilot. Katie points out that even with more frequent bumps, flying remains one of the safest ways to travel.
The good news: Aeroplanes have been designed to handle severe turbulence.
The not-so-good news: The atmosphere is becoming increasingly unpredictable. Strapped in at 39,000 feet, you can actually feel climate change through that visceral drop in your stomach. As the bumps get more frequent and uncomfortable, what you’re feeling, quite literally, is the direct effect of a warming world.
Why is turbulence getting worse?
The jet stream is becoming erratic: As our atmosphere heats up, the upper atmosphere is warming faster above the tropics than over the poles. These temperature differences power the jet stream, those fast-moving ribbons of wind that carry aircraft across oceans.
As the temperature differences widen, the jet stream is becoming faster, more turbulent, and less predictable. The turbulence associated with the jet stream, called ‘clear air turbulence’, is hard for pilots to avoid as it is invisible; you can literally run into it ‘out of the blue’, flying through a cloudless sky.
New research from the University of Reading tells us that the skies are much bumpier than they were 40 years ago; severe clear-air turbulence rose ~55% over the North Atlantic, and this unsettling trend is set to continue.
As thunderstorms are also becoming more intense, so too is the turbulence within and around them. Luckily, this kind of turbulence is easier for pilots to anticipate and hopefully avoid.
How are airlines adapting?
Airlines are already taking note by adjusting routes and flight levels to try and avoid the worst areas of known turbulence. Apart from the discomfort it causes to passengers, flying through turbulence also causes more wear and tear on the aircraft.
Some airlines are even re-evaluating their in-flight service. Korean Air, for example, recently ended a 25-year tradition of serving its popular instant noodles after several mid-air scalding incidents, a small but telling sign of how airline operations are evolving in the face of climate change.
What can passengers do?
A Bumprints Bright Idea™:
To minimise turbulence when you have to fly, choose a seat close to the wings. This corresponds to the aircraft’s centre of gravity. Think of it like a seesaw; the further away you are from the centre, the bumpier it will feel.
But even more importantly, as passengers, our consumer choices can help to reduce aviation’s growing contribution to climate change:
- Book the flight with the lowest carbon emissions. Watch our quick tutorial video on using Google Flights to sort by emissions and avoid planet-warming contrails.
- Fly direct when possible. Minimise the distance flown, and the total number of takeoffs and landings.
- Pack lighter. Every kilogram on board matters for carbon emissions.
- Take the Bumprints quiz. Find out what type of flyer you are and get personalised tips to reduce your carbon bumprint. It’s a quick way to see how small adjustments — from route selection to trip frequency — add up to real-world change.
Turbulence isn’t new, but it is getting increasingly uncomfortable. And the story it tells, of a planet’s atmosphere in flux, is even more uncomfortable.
Your questions:
Yes. Research from the University of Reading found severe clear-air turbulence over the North Atlantic rose by around 55% between 1979 and 2020, and the trend is set to continue as the climate warms.
A warming atmosphere heats the tropics faster than the poles at altitude, which strengthens and destabilises the jet stream. That increases “clear-air turbulence”, the invisible kind pilots can’t easily see or avoid.
Yes. Aircraft are built to withstand severe turbulence, and flying remains one of the safest ways to travel. The real issue is comfort, and what the bumps are telling us about a changing climate.
