Flight Disruptions Now

July 30, 2026

Florida's four biggest airports are in ground stops, the Northeast storm wall has cleared, and Boston Logan holds at 110-minute delays

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The noon Thursday update: the Northeast storm wall has fully cleared with JFK, Newark, LaGuardia, Philadelphia, and the DC airports all on time for the first time this week, but Orlando, Miami, Fort Lauderdale, and Tampa entered ground stops from thunderstorms, Boston Logan remains in a 110-minute ground delay program from low ceilings, San Francisco and San Diego have routine ground delay programs, and the afternoon forecast flags LaGuardia and Newark as possible again at 2 PM.

What changed: the Northeast cleared, Florida took over

The FAA's live airport status page (fetched at 12:22 PM ET) confirms a geographic shift that the SPC Day 1 Convective Outlook predicted overnight: the severe risk has moved off the Northeast and into the central Plains and eastern Gulf Coast. JFK, Newark, LaGuardia, Philadelphia, Reagan National, Dulles, and BWI are all operating without ground stops or delay programs for the first time this week. The wall of thunderstorm ground stops that hit the New York and DC metros from Tuesday through Wednesday night is over.

What replaced it is a cluster of ground stops across Florida. The FAA homepage lists active ground stoppages at Orlando (MCO), Miami (MIA), Fort Lauderdale (FLL), and Tampa (TPA), all caused by thunderstorms, plus Fort Myers (FMY) and a smaller facility. FlightQueue's live FAA delay board corroborates the same airports, showing MCO, MIA, and FLL in active ground stop status with thunderstorm causes. The NWS forecast for Fort Lauderdale (forecast.weather.gov) calls for a 20% chance of showers and thunderstorms after 2 PM with a heat index near 109 degrees, consistent with the convective buildup driving the stops.

This is the first time this week the active disruption zone has centered on Florida rather than the Northeast. The SPC's Day 1 outlook, issued at 1:49 AM ET Thursday, places a Slight Risk across the central and northern Plains (South Dakota into Nebraska) and a Marginal Risk along the eastern Gulf Coast from the Florida Panhandle into southern Georgia, with "isolated severe gusts" possible this afternoon. The Northeast is not in any severe risk category today.

Boston Logan's 110-minute ground delay program

Boston is the bridge between the old storm system and the new one. The FAA homepage lists Boston Logan under Ground Delays with cause "low ceilings," and FlightQueue's live board shows the GDP averaging about 110 minutes. That is a major delay program, comparable in scale to Wednesday's Boston GDP which averaged 106 minutes per the FAA advisory. FlightAware reports 147 delays and 8 cancellations at Logan so far today, down from Wednesday's 493 delays and 73 cancellations per Boston.com, but the low ceilings are keeping the arrival rate constrained.

The deeparrival.com analysis of Wednesday's BOS program noted that the arrival rate of 36 per hour depends on Runway 4R, and a shift to the Runway 15 configuration could drop that to 24 to 28. If southeast winds force that configuration change today, the delay stack could worsen without a new storm cell over the field. The NWS forecast for Boston (per Boston.com) calls for on-and-off showers continuing through Thursday, which means the low ceilings may not lift until late afternoon or evening.

The Wednesday BOS GDP ran from 1 PM ET through 11:59 PM ET (1700Z July 29 to 0359Z July 30) per the FAA advisory. Today's program is a separate issuance for the same underlying cause: residual moisture and low clouds from the storm system that has now pushed south.

The Northeast storm wall: what just happened

For context, the disruption that began Tuesday July 28 (when American Airlines' IT outage grounded every flight for 45 minutes on top of the first storm wave) ran for three full days. Ground stops cycled through the New York metros, Philadelphia, the DC airports, Denver, Charlotte, Salt Lake City, Orlando, and San Diego across Tuesday, Wednesday, and Wednesday night. The thetravel.com report on Wednesday's totals cited 7,699 US delays and 559 cancellations, with Denver worst at 521 delays (47% of its volume), followed by O'Hare at 337 and DFW at 336. Newark had the most canceled departures at 63, with Boston and LaGuardia tied at 40 each.

As of Thursday morning, that system has moved off the coast. The same thetravel.com report noted that "Thursday disruptions are low as of early morning" with only 14 scheduled cancellations at Boston and 21 across Delta's network, though that assessment was published at 7:20 AM ET, before the Florida ground stops appear to have fired.

Afternoon forecast and what to watch

The FAA NAS Status forecast still lists afternoon windows that could bring programs back to the Northeast:

These are POSSIBLE, the lowest confidence level, and the SPC has dropped the Northeast from any severe risk category. But the nasstatus forecast has been slow to update this week, often carrying stale lines for hours after conditions change. If the Northeast stays clear through the 2 PM window, the Florida ground stops and Boston GDP will be the day's main story.

San Francisco and San Diego both have active ground delay programs, but these are routine: SFO at about 40 minutes from fog and construction (the standing 01R/19L construction SIR runs through November 15), and SAN at about 31 minutes from compacted demand. Neither is storm-related.

Airline waivers and rebooking

No airline has posted a Florida-specific travel waiver as of noon ET Thursday. The active waivers from the Northeast storm are narrowing:

Airlines typically issue new waivers within 2 to 3 hours of the FAA's morning planning webinar, which ran earlier today. If you are flying through Orlando, Miami, Fort Lauderdale, or Tampa this afternoon, check your carrier's travel alerts page directly before assuming a waiver exists. The same-city-pair rule applies on most waivers: switching from Orlando to Tampa (or vice versa) may trigger a fare difference even if both airports are covered.

If your flight is canceled, request a refund to your original payment method rather than accepting a rebooking you did not choose. The DOT's cash-refund rule for canceled or significantly changed flights applies regardless of weather cause.

That’s the reading for this issue.