Seldom do we end up flying as the only jet in the sky. Often we are just a few minutes behind some other flight that just reported turbulence. Now would be a good time to turn on the seat belt sign.
Or we look out the window and recognize the signs of turbulent air ahead, such as an obvious change in the type or composition of cloud(s), a line of thunderstorms, top of a stratus layer getting whipped up-a thousand telltale signs recognized following decades of plying our trade flying around the earth's middle & upper atmosphere.
We do have dispatch generated turbulence charts displaying reported or predicted areas of turbulence to reference.
Stormscopes/strike finders and radar are capable of displaying information useful in predicting unstable, turbulent and potentially dangerous flying conditions.
Last edited by Northbeach; 30th Oct 2011 at 01:51.