July 13, 2026
Houston's Bush and Hobby airports went into ground stops this morning as the storm wall finally hit Texas
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Bush Intercontinental's ground stop was ordered just after 11:20 AM CT with departure delays averaging 45 minutes and climbing. Hobby's ran until 1 PM CT. The FAA credits thunderstorms and microbursts. DFW has the most delayed flights in the nation. No airline has issued a new waiver yet.
The convective wall that the FAA forecast over the Northeast for seven straight days, and that kept missing, found a different target this morning. The FAA issued ground stops at both of Houston's major airports as thunderstorms and microbursts crossed southeast Texas, the first time this week the storm pattern hit the Gulf Coast.
George Bush Intercontinental's ground stop was ordered just after 11:20 AM Central, according to the Laredo Morning Times (Hearst Newspapers), citing the FAA's National Airspace System Status. It was expected to last until 12:45 PM CT, with a 30 to 60 percent chance of extension. Departure delays at Bush were averaging 45 minutes and increasing. William P. Hobby's ground stop, ordered just before 11:30 AM CT, was expected to run until 1 PM CT with the same extension probability. Hobby's average delays jumped from 12 minutes to 49 minutes after the stop went into effect. The FAA's operations advisory (ADVZY 071) confirms that IAH ground stops were issued due to thunderstorms and microbursts.
The initial ground stop windows have passed, but the disruption is not over. FlightView/delays) reported gate hold and taxi delays at Bush between 46 minutes and 1 hour and increasing. FlightAware showed departure delays of 16 to 30 minutes and increasing due to thunderstorms, with 191 delays logged at the hub today. One aggregator, citing FlightAware data from 2:36 PM ET, reported IAH operating under a ground delay program with departures averaging about 65 minutes. The National Weather Service in Houston described a "deep tropical airmass" over southeast Texas, with a lull in the rain expected to develop this evening.
DFW carries the most disrupted flights in the nation, and the Northeast wall is done
Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport has the most delayed or canceled flights in the country today. FlightAware counted 589 delays at DFW, compounding Sunday's ground stop and ground delay program that halted all flights and imposed a 52-minute average delay. DFW canceled the most departing flights of any airport worldwide on Sunday. American Airlines, which runs its largest hub from DFW, had 27 canceled flights Monday morning with numbers expected to climb. Dallas and Denton counties were under flash flood warnings into Monday morning from the same storm system.
The FAA's overnight operations plan (ADVZY 011, written 9:21 PM ET Sunday) made the shift explicit: "The Texas markets, ATL, CLT, MCO and TPA are all in the plan for terminal and enroute initiatives due to forecast thunderstorms." For the first time all week, the Northeast was dropped from the terminal plan entirely.
That drop is an admission of what the week's data already showed. For seven consecutive days, July 7 through today, the FAA's forecast placed a ground stop at Reagan National as "expected" after 8:30 AM ET, followed by a wall of ground stops across JFK, LaGuardia, Philadelphia, Newark, and the DC metros after 2 PM. The forecast DCA convective ground stop never fired. The 2 PM Northeast wall went live only twice in seven days, on July 9 and July 11. The storms kept tracking south instead: Atlanta took ground stops July 9, 11, and 12. Charlotte went into ground stop July 10. DFW followed July 12, and Houston this morning. A flight-tracking aggregator citing FlightAware data also reported a ground stop at Atlanta Monday afternoon, where the hub has taken confirmed ground stops on three of the last five days, though no Atlanta-area outlet had confirmed it independently by mid-afternoon.
World Cup semifinal positioning meets the Texas storm zone
The FIFA World Cup semifinal between France and Spain is tomorrow, July 14, at AT&T Stadium in the Dallas area. Today is the last full day for fans to position into Dallas before the match, and DFW sits squarely in the storm zone the FAA has flagged. A second semifinal, England against Argentina, follows July 15 at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, where thunderstorms have disrupted flights on three of the last five days. Travelers flying through either hub this week should build in extra connection time and monitor flight status directly with their airline.
Rebooking basics
No airline has issued a new travel waiver for today's Houston disruptions as of this writing. American Airlines' DFW waiver, posted July 11, covered travel on July 12 only, with changes required by July 12, and is now expired. United, Delta, and JetBlue have not posted new Monday advisories for Houston or Dallas. If your flight is affected, check your carrier's travel alerts page directly:
The FAA's National Airspace System Status and operations advisory page remain the authoritative real-time sources. FlightAware tracks cancellations and delays by airport.
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