The thing with the ITCZ is that it can extend as a band across Africa for many hundreds of miles. In terms of fuel endurance it can therefore be impossible to fly around. You sometimes have to go through it. Today's weather radars are colour contoured and more besides, accurate and reliable aids to storm navigation. In the elder days as I remember, radars were very crude and a big black screen could mean either that there was nothing around for miles or that you had inadvertently flown into the eye of the storm and were about to experience an unpleasant exit.
With most of the carriers for which I flew,the weather radars never functioned well or at all. A defunct weather radar was only a no go item if thunderstorms were actually forecast on the route to be flown, at that level, at that time, which of course, they never were. If you ever even mentioned the fact that you might encounter an Rx and that really, really, the radar ought to be serviceable, OPS would become most upset and you'd have to speak with the Chief Pilot.
Edit: Just to tidy up some atrocious grammar.
Last edited by cavortingcheetah; 13th Mar 2015 at 16:56.