Originally Posted by
wiggy
FWIW for a few years if the Met was as forecast/observed that day the preferential runway system was junked and landings were assigned 27L to stay upwind on West/base central area and so avoid the turbulence.
I believe that policy is still nominally in place, at least according to Heathrow's website:
Weather can also affect the use of alternation. For example, strong south-westerly winds can blow across the various buildings in Heathrow’s maintenance area and affect the approach for aircraft landing on the northern runway on westerly operations. When this occurs, we switch to landing on the southern runway for safety reasons.
https://www.heathrow.com/noise/heath...ay-alternation
That said, it's well over a year, maybe longer, since that appears to have been last used in anger.