Slasher,
REAL airlines will avoid thunderstorms like the plague, or at
least avoid the red and magenta areas. A report with the full
You're of Nam, so with lots of tropical experience you know as well as anybody that flying through red is often times not an issue. All red means is there is lots of water, the colour itself does not say anything about the turbulence. But the shape and contours of the colours tell you everything...when accompanied by the appropriate tilt that is.
Back to the topic, our manual provides specific distances from cells depending on the phase of flight, recommending placing the aircraft upwind if at all possible. But when the squal line extends hundreds of miles, sometimes the only possibilities are to find a good enough hole or turn back (which I have never had to do as yet).