Where Is Turbulence Worst?
Turbulence is not random — it clusters in well-documented places: the edges of the jet streams, the air downwind of big mountain ranges, and the storm belt near the equator. The map below is a generalised illustration of where turbulence is most frequently reported over a typical year, based on published climatology. It is not a live forecast, and not a measure of any airline, airport or country.
Click a zone for the mechanism and its source. Illustrative climatology, not operational data — turbulence on any given flight depends on the day’s weather, which crews forecast and route around. Zones are coarse and for illustration only.
Where turbulence clusters — and why
Clear-air turbulence concentrates along the edges of jet streams, where wind speed changes sharply over a short distance. Of the Northern-Hemisphere corridors studied, it is most frequent over East Asia, where the subtropical jet is strongest — aircraft there meet moderate-or-greater clear-air turbulence roughly 7.5% of the time; the North Atlantic and North Pacific crossings are also prominent (Foudad et al. 2024 and Prosser et al. 2023, from reanalysis).
Air forced up and over high ground forms standing “mountain waves” that can reach well above the summits, so bumpier air is more commonly reported downwind of the great ranges — the Andes, the Himalaya and Tibetan Plateau, the Rockies, the Alps, and the high terrain of Greenland and Iceland (FAA AC 00-30; SKYbrary).
Near the equator, the band of rising warm air known as the Intertropical Convergence Zone builds frequent towering storms with tops above 40,000 ft, so convective turbulence is a routine feature of many tropical routes; the same process drives warm-season afternoon storms over mid-latitude land (SKYbrary; NOAA / WMO).
Seasonality matters too: jet-stream and mountain-wave turbulence are strongest in winter, when upper-level winds are fastest; convective turbulence peaks on warm-season afternoons as surface heating builds; and clear-air turbulence can occur in a clear sky at any hour — which is why the seatbelt sign comes on even when the ride looks smooth (NOAA).
About the “most turbulent routes” lists
Published route-turbulence rankings (for example Turbli’s annual list, built from forecast-model data) consistently place mountain-crossing legs at the top — the Santiago–Mendoza hop across the Andes, and several Himalayan routes. That reflects the terrain and winds those flights cross, not the airlines that operate them.
Two things are worth keeping in perspective: “most turbulent” means routinely bumpy, not unsafe — even the roughest scheduled routes rate as moderate turbulence, well within what airframes are built for; and passengers do not choose a flight’s routing or altitude in any case (airline dispatch and air traffic control do, planning around known turbulence before departure). For why turbulence is not a safety threat, see is turbulence dangerous?
What a passenger can notice
- The ride is steadiest over the wing. An aircraft pitches about its centre of gravity, which sits near the wings, so seats over the wing feel the least vertical motion and seats toward the nose or tail feel the most — a comfort difference, not a safety one, since a fastened seatbelt is what governs injury risk (NTSB).
- Time and season follow patterns. Convective turbulence tends to build through the afternoon as surface heating peaks and is more common in summer over land; clear-air turbulence near the jet stream is more frequent in winter, when jet streams are strongest (NOAA).
- An “air pocket” is a myth. The aircraft is not falling; in ordinary turbulence the altitude changes are small, and a fastened seatbelt removes almost all of the injury risk (NTSB / FAA).
Related Pages
Sources
- Foudad, M. et al. (2024) — “Past and Future Trends in Clear-Air Turbulence over the Northern Hemisphere,” J. Geophysical Research: Atmospheres
- Prosser, M.C., Williams, P.D. et al. (2023) — “Evidence for Large Increases in Clear-Air Turbulence Over the Past Four Decades,” Geophysical Research Letters; University of Reading
- Turbli — “Most Turbulent Flight Routes of 2025” (from NOAA + UK Met Office model data)
- SKYbrary — “Mountain Waves” and “Inter-Tropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ)”
- FAA Advisory Circular AC 00-30 (Clear Air Turbulence Avoidance); NOAA / WMO aviation-hazards guidance
- Wilms, H. et al. (2020) — mountain-wave turbulence above Iceland, Q. J. Royal Meteorological Society
- NTSB SS2101 — turbulence-related injuries in air-carrier operations (the fastened-seatbelt finding)
FlySafe provides automated computation of numerical indices from publicly available data; this guide is informational content only. The map is illustrative published climatology (NOAA, UK Met Office, University of Reading, FAA, SKYbrary) — not a live forecast, not an airspace-risk score, and not a measure of any airline, airport or country. Turbulence on any given flight depends on the day’s weather. See Terms of Service.