Incredibly strong jet stream shaves hours off of flights ahead of the holidays
Flights approach sound barrier while riding incredibly strong jet stream
An abnormally strong jet stream over the North Pacific on Thursday resulted in some incredible flight times and fuel savings.
MUST SEE: How one of Canada's busiest airports navigates tough winter weather
The wind speed at around 10 km above the surface was raging at 400 km/h. This allowed Cathay Pacific flights from Hong Kong to San Francisco to reach 1272 km/h, more than 300 km/h above the Airbus A350’s standard cruising speed.
Flights from Hong Kong to Vancouver were completed in under 10 hours, nearly two hours ahead of normal.
A similar situation is developing over the northeast Atlantic and Europe.
Friday morning, flights from Toronto to London will shave an hour off the travel time.
Return flights from Europe and North America to Asia aren't as impacted because flights are able to detour around the strongest part of the jet stream, which is nearly 1000 km wide and nearly 5000 km long.
RELATED: Six annoying ways weather forces airlines to cancel your flight
If you’re wondering how close these speeds are to reaching the speed of sound, the short answer is, they surpass the 1235 km/h sound barrier. However, the sonic booms didn't happen because that 1,235 km/h has to be the speed of the object in relation to the air.
These flights are only reaching around 900 km. Jumbo jets usually travel at 85 percent of the speed of sound.
Thumbnail image courtesy: Pexels