Plane spotting in bad weather: making the most of rain, fog and clouds

The forecast promises gray, wet and dreary – and most spotters stay home. Yet plane spotting in bad weather is often more relaxed and sometimes even more rewarding than a sunny day at a crowded fence. Under a layer of clouds, the direction of the light hardly matters, rain creates subjects you never get in sunshine, and fog changes operations at the airport in ways you should know about. This guide shows you how to read weather data for your spot, how to protect your camera and yourself and when you’d better pack up.

Bad weather: the short answer

Three values decide whether a gray day is worthwhile: visibility, cloud base and type of precipitation. A solid but high cloud layer with good visibility is almost ideal for aircraft photos, because it delivers soft, shadowless light. Light rain brings additional subjects. It only gets problematic with dense fog, low-hanging clouds over the approach or heavy rain that veils everything at longer distances. And with a thunderstorm, that’s it – no matter how exciting the approach happens to be.

Weather situations compared

Not every “bad” weather is equally bad. The following overview helps you gauge what awaits you before you set off.

Weather situation	In the METAR roughly	Light and picture	Airport operations	Worth it?
High, solid cloud layer	OVC at high altitude, good visibility	soft, no shadows, light direction almost irrelevant	normal	yes, often very good
Light rain, drizzle	-RA, DZ	flat, but with spray and reflections	normal	yes, with rain protection
Heavy rain, showers	+RA, SHRA	contrast collapses at distance	mostly normal, brief interruptions possible	only up close
Mist	BR, visibility 1–5 km	milky, long-distance view suffers	normal	yes at short distances
Fog	FG, visibility under 1 km, possibly VV	aircraft appear late, atmospheric	fewer movements, LVP possible	for mood shots
Thunderstorm	TS, TSRA	–	ground handling may stop	no, call it off

How to read the weather report for your spot

The best source for the weather right at the runway is the METAR, the airport’s half-hourly or hourly weather report. For spotters, these building blocks matter most:

• Visibility: Given in meters; 9999 means ten kilometers or more.
• Weather phenomena: RA for rain, DZ for drizzle, SH for showers, TS for thunderstorm, FG for fog, BR for mist. A minus in front means light, a plus means heavy.
• Cloud cover: FEW (1–2 oktas), SCT (3–4 oktas), BKN (5–7 oktas) and OVC (8 oktas), each with the height of the cloud base in hundreds of feet. BKN008 therefore means: five to seven oktas, base at 800 feet.
• VV: Vertical visibility. If it appears, the sky can no longer be seen because of fog or heavy precipitation.
• CAVOK: The opposite of bad weather – at least ten kilometers of visibility, no clouds below 5,000 feet (or below the highest minimum sector altitude), no thunderstorm or towering cumulus clouds and no significant weather.

The cloud base is especially important for approach photos. If it hangs low, aircraft only emerge from the clouds shortly before touchdown – at spots far out on the approach you then see little. How to decode METAR and forecast (TAF) character by character is explained in the guide Reading METAR and TAF. The wind in the same report decides from which direction landings are made; background on that is under Understanding runway direction in use.

Cloud cover: the underrated photo light

In blazing sun, the sun position determines whether a spot works – the guide Planning the sun position shows that. Under a solid cloud layer, this restriction falls away. The light comes evenly from above, hard shadows under wings and on the belly of the fuselage disappear, and white fuselages don’t blow out as quickly. Spots that only deliver backlight in sun suddenly become equal.

For the camera, overcast weather mainly means: less light. Three adjustments help.

• ISO up: Better some noise than a blurred aircraft. With jets on approach, the shutter speed should stay short enough; with propeller aircraft you plan it deliberately. You’ll find basic values under Camera settings for plane spotting.
• Exposure compensation to the plus side: The bright gray sky fools the exposure metering. Without compensation, the aircraft often comes out too dark. Check the histogram rather than just the display.
• Look for a background: An aircraft against a uniform gray sky quickly looks flat. Hangars, trees, hills or the terminal in the background give the picture depth.

Rain: subjects that only exist when it’s wet

For many experienced spotters, light to moderate rain is the most exciting weather. Three subjects show up almost only then:

• Spray behind the landing gear: On touchdown and braking on a wet runway, the wheels whip up plumes of water. On takeoff, engines and landing gear sometimes trail veritable clouds of spray.
• Reflections: A wet runway or a wet apron acts like a dark mirror. With the aircraft’s lights and apron lighting, strong pictures arise, especially at dusk.
• Visible vortices: In humid air, water vapor condenses in the cores of the vortices at wingtips and flap edges, because pressure and temperature drop sharply there. On takeoff and landing you then see white streaks over the wings. More about these vortices is in the article Wake turbulence and separation.

Large aircraft make these effects especially clear, such as an Airbus A350-900 or a Boeing 777-300ER on takeoff from a wet runway. For spray and vortices you need shorter shutter speeds, for the feeling of falling rain slightly longer ones – drops then become visible as fine streaks.

In heavy rain the picture flips: at long distances everything blurs, and autofocus and contrast suffer. Then subjects nearby are more worthwhile, such as taxiing aircraft on the apron or pictures from an observation deck at the terminal.

Fog: what happens at the airport

Fog doesn’t only affect your photos but the whole operation. Landings in poor visibility run via the instrument landing system (ILS), which is divided into categories. The category determines down to which decision height and which runway visual range (RVR) an approach may be flown.

Category	Decision height	Runway visual range (RVR)
CAT I	at least 200 ft (60 m)	at least 550 m (or 800 m visibility)
CAT II	100 to 200 ft (30–60 m)	at least 300 m
CAT III	below 100 ft or none	below 300 m or none

If visibility drops below the CAT I values – typically a runway visual range under about 550 meters or a cloud base below 200 feet – many airports put low visibility procedures (LVP) into effect. Each airport sets the exact trigger values itself. For you as a spotter, that has noticeable consequences:

• Fewer movements: The ILS protection areas must stay clear so the radio signal isn’t disturbed. Taxiing aircraft wait at holding points farther away, and the spacing between landings grows.
• Concentration on one runway: Landings are preferably made where the highest-category ILS is installed. At Hamburg’s Affenfelsen (“Monkey Rock”), it can therefore get quieter in poor visibility, because landings then tend to happen on 23. At Hanover, the long north runway 09L/27R is equipped for Category IIIb approaches – more on that at the Hanover observation deck.
• Delays and diversions: In dense fog there can be waiting times. How an ILS approach works in detail is explained in the article ILS approach explained.

Photographically, fog is a mood subject: aircraft appear as silhouettes, landing lights glow through the mist, and almost graphic pictures arise on the apron. Classic side views from a long distance, on the other hand, don’t work. Get close, use shorter focal lengths and expect the autofocus to hunt more often. Radiation fog often lifts over the course of the morning – if you’re on site then, you experience the transition from gray to light.

Protecting camera and gear

For the equipment, wetness is a bigger problem than for you. A small extra kit is enough for most days. You’ll find the complete packing list in the Gear checklist.

For yourself, the layering principle applies: waterproof outer layer, warm middle layer, a dry spare layer in the backpack. Wet clothing cools you down quickly even at mild temperatures, especially at drafty spots like hills or outdoor platforms. For the cold season there are tips of their own in the article Plane spotting in winter.

Where to go in bad weather?

Not every spot is suited to rain. The choice depends on whether you need shelter or are looking for subjects.

An example of a true bad-weather spot is the glassed-in viewing platform at Dresden Airport on the terminal’s gallery level. At the opposite, the Zeppelinheim viewing platform in Frankfurt, there is neither a roof nor wind protection – there, the rain jacket decides the day. At Frankfurt Airport, the visitor center in Terminal 1 with its panoramic window offers an alternative for wet days.

Shooting through glass

Behind panes, reflections are the main problem. Put the lens right against the glass if possible, ideally with a rubber lens hood, wear dark clothing and shoot as perpendicular to the pane as possible. Oblique angles increase distortion and blur. For record shots that works well; for top-quality pictures, go to the fence on a drier day.

Thunderstorms, storms and slippery ground: when to call it off

For all the enthusiasm for dramatic skies: a thunderstorm is the weather situation in which a session ends immediately. If you hear thunder, you’re already within reach of lightning. Spotting spots are often exactly the wrong places then: open hills, open fields, tall masts and long metal fences. Seek shelter in a solid building or a closed car and wait a while after the last thunder before you go back. You don’t leave tripods and umbrellas standing open outdoors.

More reasons to head home: storm warnings with the danger of falling trees or flying debris, slick ground on dirt tracks and hills, and the feeling of being chilled to the bone. What is generally allowed around the fence is summarized in the article Is plane spotting allowed?.

What to keep in mind

• Plan by visibility and cloud height, not by the rain radar alone. Rain is often unproblematic, a low cloud layer over the approach, on the other hand, is not.
• Rethink runway direction in use in fog. In poor visibility, the runway with the best ILS is preferably used – that can leave your regular spot empty.
• Check exposure. A gray sky makes aircraft dark; the histogram doesn’t lie.
• Use weather changes. After a shower, when the sun breaks through and the runway is still wet, the best pictures of the day often arise.
• Safety before pictures. No photo is worth standing at the fence in a thunderstorm.

Conclusion

For plane spotters, bad weather is rarely a real write-off. Cloud cover delivers soft, even light and makes backlight spots usable, light rain brings spray, reflections and visible vortices, and fog provides atmosphere – even if it thins out operations and steers them to particular runways. If you check the METAR and runway direction in use, protect your gear and consistently call it off in a thunderstorm, you often have the fence to yourself on gray days. If you’re just starting out, you’ll find the basics in the guide Plane spotting for beginners.