MCO closed due to weather

[BEARSHOUSE4]

I had family flying out of Philadelphia today around noon heading to Orlando. After sitting on the ramp for a while, their jet returned to the terminal because MCO was closed due to weather. I figured it had to be pretty intense to close the airport. Any feedback?

 

[LuvtheGoof]

Weird, as weather.com doesn't even show it raining there. Storms are north of it, but I wouldn't think that would close the airport.

 

[durangojim]

Not so uncommon during this time of year

 

[cosmicgirl]

There were some diversions around 1pm and other flights were delayed: https://www.flightradar24.com/data/airports/mco/arrivals

 

[Brian]

Not so uncommon during this time of year

Several times a week as of late.

 

[marni1971]

I’ve sat in a plane waiting to depart when the airport closed as we were taxi-ing between the terminal and runway. The queue of planes turned off their engines and most lighting and we just sat there for an hour watching the night time light show. Very surreal. I’ve also stacked a few times waiting to land until the airport reopened (although in effect all ground movements are halted and apron crew take shelter; the airport doesn’t close in the sense of the word)

 

[plutofan15]

Not unusual especially in the summer. My wife and son were flying there four years ago when this happened. Their connecting flight was held in Baltimore for over five hours. When they were finally airborne, storms popped up again and they were diverted to Ft. Myers. Were then supposed to fly to Orlando but the flight crew reached their maximum flight time. Screw that, while at home in CT, I rented them a car and they drove the rest of the way. They checked into the Beach Club and since it was extra magic hours at the MK, they hightailed over there. A 1:00 planned arrival turned into a midnight walk down Main Street. At least they have a story to tell.
PS: Tracking their flight online, it landed in Orlando at 11:45pm so they made it to the park before they would have boarded their Magical Express bus.

 

[GlacierGlacier]

I live half an hour north of the airport. We get storms like that every other day during the summer, it seems. I wouldn't be surprised by any delays - my SO's flights in and out of MCO this past month were each delayed by a good 15 minutes to an hour.

 

[James J]

I’ve sat in a plane waiting to depart when the airport closed as we were taxi-ing between the terminal and runway. The queue of planes turned off their engines and most lighting and we just sat there for an hour watching the night time light show. Very surreal. I’ve also stacked a few times waiting to land until the airport reopened (although in effect all ground movements are halted and apron crew take shelter; the airport doesn’t close in the sense of the word)

I had a similar thing happen just as we were about to leave the gate at Charlotte airport a few weeks ago. Unfortunately for us, the flight that had already been delayed by 5 hours was cancelled because of the brief thunderstorm - which we all found out about via a notification from the American Airlines app rather than from the crew themselves...

 

[Phonedave]

Lightning will shut down all ramp operations. No need for rain, wind, or anything else.

I have landed, and then sat on the tarmac and then waited for lightning to clear before we could get to a gate many times.