Forensic weather expert: What to do when you’re snowed in

This weekend’s snowstorm in the eastern United States shut down several major airports and stranded tens of thousands of airline passengers. Most flights are operating normally this morning, but there’s always the trip home. I asked Howard Altschule, a meteorologist with Forensic Weather Consultants, what to do when weather threatens to ground your next flight.

Your flight is stuck in the snow. Now what?

If you’re stuck in the airport already because of weather delays with such a huge storm, one thing I would recommend is try to immediately get a hotel room nearby — especially if you have kids.

The last place you want to be is in an airport for 24 to 36 hours, sleeping on the floor. Of course, the early bird gets the worm in these cases. Also, you can check if other airlines have any availability on sooner flights. Sometime airlines will “work with each other” in the best interest of their clients.

Are there any new ways of keeping up with the pre-flight weather?

I recently became a fan of Southwest Airlines’ Facebook page. Southwest is my favorite airline. Their Facebook site was the first to provide me with a status update saying that major delays were now expected and they provided a link to details. I thought that was very cool. Way to take advantage of technology!

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