July 15, 2026

Dallas Love Field's ground stop runs to 4:45 PM, DFW is diverting arrivals, and New York's weather reprieve is over

The FAA extended Love Field's thunderstorm ground stop to 4:45 PM ET (745 flights, 53-minute average delays) to help clear DFW departures. DFW's own ground stop was canceled at 4:14 PM, but the airport is still diverting arrivals and holding 30-minute delays through midnight. Thunderstorms reached the New York metro area at 4 PM, ending the morning's reprieve: LGA, JFK, EWR, and PHL now have arrival delays up to 30 minutes with diversion recovery active. ATL's 3 PM World Cup kickoff passed without a ground stop. SFO's ground delay program was canceled.

The thunderstorm system that this morning's issue flagged over central Texas has worked its way north to the Dallas Metroplex, and it hit both Dallas airports this afternoon. The FAA's 3:42 PM operations plan (ADVZY 086) called convective activity in Texas "today's biggest area of concern" and said impacts to Houston and Dallas arrival routes "will continue through the evening" as the system moves north of San Antonio.

Dallas Love Field (DAL) ground stop, extended to 4:45 PM ET. The FAA's ADVZY 095 (signed 4:17 PM ET) shows DAL's CDM ground stop running 4:11 to 4:45 PM ET, with 745 affected flights, a 96-minute maximum delay, and a 53-minute average. The cause is thunderstorms. The advisory notes the stop was "extended a half hour to help with departures at DFW," meaning the FAA is using Love Field's ground stop to manage the departure backlog at the larger airport next door. Love Field is Southwest Airlines' home base (18 of its 20 gates).

DFW ground stop canceled, but diversions and delays continue. DFW's own ground stop was canceled at 4:14 PM ET (ADVZY 094, one minute before its scheduled end). But the FAA activated diversion recovery for DFW at 3:59 PM ET (ADVZY 090, running through midnight), and Dallas Metro arrival delays of up to 30 minutes from thunderstorms are in effect at both DAL and DFW through midnight (ADVZY 089, signed 3:58 PM ET). Route restrictions rerouting traffic from the Great Lakes and Florida around the Dallas storms are also active through midnight (ADVZY 085, ADVZY 087). DFW/DAL ground stops or delay programs remain possible through the evening per the ops plan.

The capping and tunneling that the 1:20 PM issue reported through 2 PM was extended to 4 PM (ADVZY 072, signed 1:10 PM ET) before the ground stops replaced it. American Airlines' DFW waiver page was last updated July 13 and covers only July 12 travel (rebook through July 16); no new DFW or Love Field waiver for today's disruption has been posted. The United South Texas waiver (AUS/IAH/SAT, rebook through July 17) remains the only active travel alert in the region.

New York's reprieve is over. This morning's issue reported that the FAA had held N90, the New York metro terminal area, out of its operations plan because weather models "do not line up." By 4 PM ET, thunderstorms had reached the ZNY terminal areas anyway. The FAA activated the NY Metro hotline at 4:07 PM ET (ADVZY 091, mandatory for ZNY/ZBW/ZDC/ZOB/EWR/LGA/JFK/PHL/TEB), turned on diversion recovery for NY Metro airports at 4:08 PM ET (ADVZY 092, covering EWR/LGA/JFK and their satellites), and issued arrival delays up to 30 minutes at 4:10 PM ET (ADVZY 093, LGA/JFK/EWR/PHL and satellites, thunderstorms, through midnight). The ZNY QVR radar outage that ran 8 AM to 4 PM ET, previewed in last night's forecast issue, has now ended, but the convective weather arriving in its wake is the more immediate problem. The FAA's 3:42 PM ops plan had already removed the Northeast terminals from the terminal plan, but the storms developed faster than the models showed.

ATL's World Cup kickoff passed without a ground stop. The 3 PM ET England vs Argentina semifinal at Mercedes-Benz Stadium (roof closed) came and went without the FAA placing Atlanta under a ground stop or ground delay program. ATL has been operating under coded departure routes (ADVZY 070, active 3 PM to 10 PM ET, weather) since kickoff, which is less restrictive than a ground stop. The FAA's 3:42 PM operations plan keeps an ATL ground stop or delay program listed as possible until 6 PM ET. (Yourweather/Meteored, citing NWS, forecasts the thunderstorm probability rising to 60% between 6 and 7 PM ET, which would hit during the post-match departure rush.) No Delta ATL or World Cup waiver has been issued.

Tracking. The SFO ground delay program (procedural compliance, reported active until 7:59 PM ET in this morning's issue) was canceled per the FAA's 3:42 PM operations plan, with a possible new SFO program for arrivals after 10 PM ET. The Texas hotline (ADVZY 071, active until 10 PM ET) and ZHU SWAP statement (ADVZY 078, active until 7 PM ET) remain in effect. Phoenix route restrictions (ADVZY 080, weather, 4:30 PM to 9 PM ET) are active. The ZID Area 3 staffing trigger runs until 10 PM ET. The next FAA planning webinar is at 5:15 PM ET, which could sharpen the evening forecast for DFW/DAL and ATL.