July 13, 2026

Atlanta ground stop Sunday made three in a row this weekend, while the Northeast forecast fizzled for a sixth day

Hartsfield-Jackson's ground stop ended just before 6 PM ET after severe storms with 60 mph gusts crossed metro Atlanta. A ground delay program ran through 6:59 PM averaging 43 minutes. FlightAware counted 740 delays at the hub today. The FAA's Northeast convective wall, forecast for the sixth straight day, never fired. No new airline waiver was issued; all previous weather advisories expired today.

The world's busiest airport took its third ground stop of the weekend on Sunday afternoon, as the line of thunderstorms that keeps missing the Northeast found Atlanta instead.

Atlanta News First reports that the Federal Aviation Administration issued the ground stop for Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport on Sunday, set to last until at least 7 PM ET. It ended just before 6 PM ET as the storms moved through. The outlet confirms this is at least the third ground stop at the airport this weekend, with stops also issued Friday and Saturday.

CBS Atlanta cites the FAA for a ground delay program running from 3:35 PM to 6:59 PM EDT, with departures to Atlanta experiencing an average delay of 43 minutes. The program applied to departures within 1,000 nautical miles, with all departing flights receiving expected departure clearance times. Radar showed wind gusts up to 60 mph and nickel-sized hail in the metro area, and the National Weather Service issued Severe Thunderstorm Watches 485 and 486 for central and south Georgia, in effect until 8 and 9 PM ET respectively.

FlightAware shows 740 total delays today at Hartsfield-Jackson, with departure delays still averaging 58 minutes as the hub works through the backlog. The FAA's own airport status page showed arrival delays down to 15 minutes or less by 5:47 PM ET, a sign the worst of the weather had cleared.

What makes today different from the forecast. For six straight days, the FAA's National Airspace System Status page has carried the same convective forecast: a DCA ground stop expected at 8:30 AM ET, an SFO ground delay program probable around 11 AM, and a 2 PM ET wall of ground stops across JFK, LaGuardia, Philadelphia, Newark, DCA, BWI, and the Florida airports. For six straight days, that Northeast wall has fizzled. The DCA 8:30 AM stop has not fired in any of those six days. The 2 PM wall fired only twice, on July 9 and July 11, as covered.

What did fire, repeatedly, was the Southeast. Atlanta took ground stops on Thursday July 9, Saturday July 11, and now Sunday July 12. Charlotte took one on Friday July 10. The convective energy that the FAA's forecast kept placing over the Northeast instead kept tracking across the Carolinas and Georgia.

Where things stand now. As of late Sunday evening, the FAA's NAS Status page shows zero active ground stops or ground delay programs for commercial traffic. The only active airport event is the routine SFO fog ground delay program (average 49 minutes, ending at 2:59 AM ET Monday). The DCA "air show" ground stop that ran from 8:25 to 10 AM ET Sunday, covered this morning, has ended. No active en route events are listed.

Rebooking. No U.S. airline has issued a new weather waiver for Sunday's Atlanta ground stop. The advisories that American, United, and Delta had in place for the July 9 to 12 storm period all expired today, July 12. Delta, whose largest hub is Atlanta, has not posted a new exception policy as of Sunday evening. If you are connecting through Atlanta on Monday, check your flight status directly with your airline. Residual delays from a hub ground stop typically ripple into the next operating day as aircraft and crews reposition.