Is Will Rogers airport prepared for snow?

[wsucougz]

Based on the weather forecast, I'm doubting my ability to be on a plane at 1pm tomorrow.

[BDP]

They're probably prepared to close it.

[Karried]

My aunt is supposed to fly in tomorrow night at 10:30 pm from sunny California.. welcome to OK!


Oklahoma City Department of Airports, 7100 Terminal Drive, Box 937, Oklahoma City, OK 73159-0937

Phone: 405-680-3200

For general comments or questions: wrwa@okc.gov

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Flight Arrivals & Departures

Put in OKC Airport and it will tell you Late flights and Delays

Flight Arrivals & Departures

[metro]

Unless it is extremely icy or windy, I don't know why they would be closed. I'm not sure why some people on this site are acting like it's never snowed in Oklahoma. It snows every year just about and usually at least one or two good storms. The airports usually are ready to handle the weather, delays at worst usually.

[Karried]

I just saw on the news that you can request a refund/one time flight change if you are traveling between today and Friday.. I was trying to see who to call but try your airline and if I hear anything else I'll post it.

[venture]

Very rarely do airports ever shut down. They will typically focus on keeping one runway operating, typically which ever has the highest ILS rated system.

I would expect flights to get cancelled if the snow or ice gets too heavy for the glycol to keep up with it. WRWA folks will probably do their best to keep a runway operational...so its going to fall to the flight crews to make the calls.

[BDP]

I'm not sure why some people on this site are acting like it's never snowed in Oklahoma.

Yeah and when it does the whole freakin place shuts down, so I just figured the airport would too.

[mranderson]

Just about the only time I remember Will Rogers being closed was during the tornadoes on May 3, 1999. The storm had a 60,000 foot ceiling. Planes are remarkably resiliant. They can land in just about anything.

[MadMonk]

Check the flights here:
Will Rogers World Airport

[OUman]

Only in severe icing conditions like those ice storms that hit the state in '00'-'01 will an airport face massive delays or be forced to shut down, or when snow falls in feet and comes down so fast that the snow plows can't keep up.

OKC has everything it needs to remain open and keep operations going as best as possible. The airport learned a lot from the ice storms and now has deicing systems installed on both main runways (or at least one of those), where deicing fluid is released right onto the runway and is a lot quicker than trucks having to drive down the length of the runway. Not to mention it has deicing trucks and snowplows as well. Besides, OKC doesn't have the issues a large hub like ORD has everytime there's snow/sleet/ice.

[BDP]

Well, there have been a lot of cancels and delays today, so it seems to have at least affected some aiports, if not our own Will Rogers.

[metro]

Yeah and when it does the whole freakin place shuts down, so I just figured the airport would too.

I've lived here 26 years and have never seen the city shut down, as someone mentioned this city has the resources it needs to operate at a sufficient minimum level. Not maxiumum capacity. I saw plenty of people out yesterday everywhere. You can't change the weather, but you can choose how you react and prepare for it. As several mentioned only one or two occassions has the airport shut down for a few hours. Airports in the north and in the Rockies face this weather for months on end.

[Spartan]

My flight leaving for Memphis at 3:55 today is on time. And then my connecting flight to Nashville is on time, as well.

[BDP]

I've lived here 26 years and have never seen the city shut down,

I have lived here longer than that and I've seen it happen several times, as recently as... yesterday. I had less than 50% employees yesterday and one division had 0. My wife's office had 20 of 60 employees show up. The news and state officials told people to stay home yesterday and today and I have been on several designated snow routes yesterday and today that have had no crews work on them at all.

Face it, snow days are "stay home" days (i.e. shut it down) in Oklahoma. We just don't have any resources committed to it. Or, at least, not enough to even cover even the corridors singled out to get the attention. This storm would not have fazed many places, but it is a big deal in Oklahoma. Credit to Will Rogers for keeping it open despite many canceled and delayed flights.

[HOT ROD]

I think snow days are shut down days everywhere (except the Rockies, where they are used to it).

I mean, Seattle shuts down completely with JUST an inch of snow. NO JOKE. lol.

[Spartan]

Airport was just fine.

[Karried]

My aunt slept on a cot overnight Thursday in Houston... for some reason, the lights were out at the airport here in OK. She flew in on Thursday morning.

I think people stay home because the drive can be so treacherous. That's why I won't go out. If we didn't have a 4x4 I wouldn't have gone anywhere for 5 days! Pizza anyone? lol.. I don't like icy roads at all!

[OUman]

I have lived here longer than that and I've seen it happen several times, as recently as... yesterday. I had less than 50% employees yesterday and one division had 0. My wife's office had 20 of 60 employees show up. The news and state officials told people to stay home yesterday and today and I have been on several designated snow routes yesterday and today that have had no crews work on them at all.

Face it, snow days are "stay home" days (i.e. shut it down) in Oklahoma. We just don't have any resources committed to it. Or, at least, not enough to even cover even the corridors singled out to get the attention. This storm would not have fazed many places, but it is a big deal in Oklahoma. Credit to Will Rogers for keeping it open despite many canceled and delayed flights.

Same thing happens in Dallas, Amarillo, and any other southern city for that matter. Only thing is we don't get snow/ice as often as the northen cities do so we don't have as much snowplows and such. Also most of the snow/ice removal equipment money goes to the cities that get the most average yearly snow. And plenty of other cities shut down with 1-2 inches of ice and 5-6 inches of snow on top of that. For that matter, Austin shuts down when just it's just sleeting and it MELTS on contact with the ground. Seattle shut down completely during the huge snowfall event there last week. It's not just Oklahoma City or Oklahoma.

My aunt slept on a cot overnight Thursday in Houston... for some reason, the lights were out at the airport here in OK. She flew in on Thursday morning.

Yeah, there was a power outage at the airport betwee 10:00p.m. and 5:00a.m. or something like that. They ran the terminal with generators but to keep everything running normally, they need full power. For that matter, any major airport terminal needs full power for normal operations.

[wsucougz]

One thing I noticed about the airport on the day of the storm is that those tiles they used are slippery as hell when wet.