Just a few days after viral footage of a Lufthansa (DLAKF) -) plane standing deep in water at Frankfurt International Airport spread across the internet, flooding from a tropical storm is leading to flight cancelations on the other side of the Atlantic.
After the first tropical storm to hit Southern California and parts of Nevada since 1939 arrived on Aug. 20, the two states were placed under a state of emergency and thousands of flights were canceled amid high winds and torrential downpour.
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Known both as Hurricane Hilary and Tropical Storm Hilary (after making impact in Southern California, the hurricane lessened its strength and was downgraded to a tropical storm), the storm made landfall in Mexico's Baja California on Aug. 20.
Cities and airports most affected by Tropical Storm Hilary
Data from plane-tracking website FlightAware shows that there were over 232 delays and 81 cancellations at Harry Reid International Airport in Las Vegas while a third of the flights from Ontario International Airport outside Los Angeles were called off.
As the major California airport closest to Mexico, San Diego International Airport experienced the most chaos. Hundreds of flights coming in and out of the city on Sunday were canceled while at least 50 slated for Aug. 21 have also been canceled preemptively. Los Angeles International Airport has been less affected with only a respective 31 and five flights canceled on Sunday and Monday.
While some airlines have been able to restart flights out of these cities by Monday morning, others are still under a weather alert as weather experts expect "catastrophic and life-threatening" flooding to last until Aug. 22 in parts of California.
"Do not attempt to travel unless you are fleeing an area subject to flooding or under an evacuation order," read an emergency alert sent to cell phones in the Los Angeles area on Sunday afternoon.
Other affected airports include the Hollywood Burbank Airport, John Wayne Airport in Orange County and Palm Springs Airport.
What to do if your flight has been delayed or canceled
"Please check with your airline before heading to the airport to see if your flight has been delayed or cancelled," Harry Reid International Airport told travelers on Twitter. "Please leave yourself extra time to get to and from the airport."
Along with flights, a number of theme parks and sporting events were also shuttered. Major League Baseball on Sunday, canceled the Arizona Diamondbacks at San Diego Padres, Tampa Bay Rays at the Los Angeles Angels and Miami Marlins at the Los Angeles Dodgers games due to the weather conditions in these cities.
Disney's (DIS) -) Disneyland and Comcast's (CMCSA) -) Universal Studios theme parks in Southern California closed their parks early on Sunday and were cautiously open while monitoring the situation by Monday.
Along with reminding travelers to continue monitoring their flight's status online before leaving for the airport, most major airlines have also put up travel alerts encouraging passengers to move their travel dates for after the storm has passed if they can.
"We are anticipating severe weather in Southern California due to Hurricane Hilary," JetBlue (JBLU) -) posted on its website. "We will waive change/cancel fees and fare differences for customers traveling Sunday, August 20 through Monday, August 21, 2023" to Burbank, John Wayne, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Ontario and San Diego.
American Airlines (AAL) -) also posted a list of cities for which it waiving change and cancelation fees amid the current weather advisory.
