Houston Thunderstorms Trigger Bush Airport Ground Stop

Published on Nov 24, 2025, 5:03 pm CST

11 min read

Key points

Severe thunderstorms and a confirmed tornado triggered an FAA ground stop at George Bush Intercontinental Airport on November 24, 2025
FAA guidance and airport status data show Bush Intercontinental departures facing roughly 75 minute average delays with some flights held longer into the afternoon
William P Hobby Airport remains operational but is logging dozens of weather related delays as storms move across southeast Texas
United hub banks through Houston are most exposed for Latin America and domestic connections, while American and Southwest flows also face elevated misconnect risk
Travelers connecting through Houston tonight should aim for at least two to three hours on a single ticket and avoid separate tickets where possible
Same day backup options include rerouting through Dallas Fort Worth, Austin, or San Antonio when available, or taking overnight connections instead of last short hops into smaller cities

Impact

Where Impacts Are Most Likely: Expect the heaviest delays at George Bush Intercontinental on United and partner departures, with moderate knock on delays at Hobby and at downline hubs in Dallas and across the central United States
Best Times To Fly: Early morning and late night departures that avoid the peak of the storm band and the mid afternoon to early evening rush are more likely to move close to schedule
Connections And Misconnect Risk: Travelers should target at least two hours for domestic connections and three hours for international itineraries through Houston tonight, avoiding tight ninety minute hops or separate tickets
What Travelers Should Do Now: Check your flight status repeatedly, enroll in airline alerts, move tight connections to later banks, and ask agents about rerouting through Dallas Fort Worth, Austin, or San Antonio if Houston options are constrained
Health And Safety Factors: Allow extra time on the roads around Houston, watch for localized flooding and debris near the airports, and do not rush between terminals during lightning or severe weather holds

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Houston Bush Airport ground stop delays are rippling through George Bush Intercontinental Airport (IAH) on November 24, 2025, after severe thunderstorms and a confirmed tornado in the Houston, Texas, metro area forced the Federal Aviation Administration to halt departures and then hold aircraft in extended queues. The sudden restrictions are already pushing average departure delays toward and beyond the 75 minute mark and raising misconnect risk for travelers heading into or out of a key United hub at the start of the Thanksgiving rush. Anyone with Houston connections tonight or on early Tuesday should assume longer taxi times, reshuffled gates, and tighter seats on the first flights that do depart.

The Houston Bush Airport ground stop is a weather safety measure that briefly stopped most departures from George Bush Intercontinental Airport on Monday afternoon, then shifted into a formal departure delay program that continues to slow takeoffs and squeeze available connection windows for both domestic and international itineraries.

Ground Stop Timeline And Current Delay Picture

According to the Houston Chronicle, the FAA ordered a ground stop at George Bush Intercontinental Airport on Monday afternoon as a line of severe thunderstorms moved across the metro area, with a confirmed tornado reported in northwest Harris County near Willowbrook and Jersey Village. Initial FAA advisories pegged average departure delays at about 75 minutes and set the ground stop to run until roughly 2:30 p.m. Central time, with a medium chance of extension depending on how fast storms cleared the immediate airspace.

By mid afternoon, the FAA airport status page for IAH was showing the airport in a departure delay program tied to thunderstorms, with a posted minimum delay of about 1 hour 16 minutes and a maximum of roughly 1 hour 30 minutes for departing flights. Flight tracking data from FlightAware and regional coverage of Texas delays suggest that the Houston disruptions are part of a wider severe weather pattern that is also hammering Dallas Fort Worth International Airport, which has logged hundreds of delays and more than 100 cancellations today as a separate ground delay there worked through the morning and early afternoon banks.

Local outlets in Houston report tornado damage in pockets of northwest Harris County, including downed trees and some structural damage, but so far no serious injuries. A tornado watch remains in effect into Monday evening for Houston and much of southeast Texas, which means additional thunderstorm cells could redevelop and force renewed traffic management restrictions at both Bush Intercontinental and William P Hobby Airport (HOU).

Bush Intercontinental Versus Hobby

George Bush Intercontinental Airport is Houston's primary global hub, handling the bulk of United Airlines long haul, transcontinental, and Latin America services, while William P Hobby Airport functions as a major base for Southwest Airlines and handles a mix of domestic and regional international flights.

As the ground stop hit Bush Intercontinental, data compiled from FlightAware and regional reporting on Texas airports showed dozens of delays building at both Houston airports. One afternoon snapshot from a statewide delays roundup counted roughly mid double digit delays at Bush Intercontinental and a similar count at Hobby, on top of the longer lines at Dallas Fort Worth, Dallas Love Field, Austin Bergstrom, and San Antonio. That mix reinforces the pattern that Bush Intercontinental is bearing the brunt of longer departure holds tied to departing traffic volume and complex bank structures, while Hobby remains more of a short and medium haul operation that can occasionally recover more quickly once a line of storms passes.

For travelers choosing between airports, the practical takeaway is that Bush Intercontinental is likely to see more pronounced misconnect risk on international and long haul itineraries because of its United hub role, but both Bush Intercontinental and Hobby are vulnerable to rolling delays whenever additional thunderstorms redevelop over the city or along the main approach and departure corridors.

How United, American, And Southwest Bank Structures Are Exposed

United runs Houston as a key north south connector between the United States and Mexico, Central America, and much of northern South America, layering multiple departure and arrival banks through the day so that inbound flights from the Midwest and East Coast can feed onward services to Latin America and smaller U.S. markets. When a ground stop or lengthy departure delay program hits Bush Intercontinental in the early afternoon, it tends to disrupt at least two clusters of traffic.

The first exposure is the late morning to early afternoon domestic bank, which brings travelers into Houston from cities such as Chicago, Denver, Los Angeles, and smaller spokes, then turns those aircraft toward Mexico, Central America, the Gulf Coast, and the Mountain West. If those inbound flights are held on the ground at their origin or delayed on arrival into Bush Intercontinental, the departure wave toward Latin America and inland U.S. destinations can lose its planned cadence, forcing rolling reassignments of aircraft and crews.

The second exposure is the late afternoon and evening international bank, which includes long haul departures to Mexico City and other major Latin American destinations and sets up overnight arrivals back into Houston or into partner hubs. When storms sit over Houston into the evening, departures in this bank can be pushed back into narrower curfews or connection windows at the far end, leading to more cancellations as airlines protect duty limits and limited gate capacity at downline airports.

American Airlines and its regional partners are less dependent on Houston as a true hub but still operate a mix of domestic routes into Bush Intercontinental, including services from Dallas Fort Worth and other central U.S. cities that are already stressed by their own weather delays. Southwest Airlines, with its base at Hobby, is heavily exposed on popular leisure routes to Cancun, Los Cabos, and other Mexican beach markets, which means storms and associated air traffic control restrictions can ripple out to resort bound traffic as well.

Practical Connection Planning Through Houston Tonight

For travelers already ticketed to connect through Houston tonight or very early on Tuesday, the central question is how much buffer to build into same day itineraries. On a normal weather day, a 60 to 90 minute domestic connection through Bush Intercontinental is often workable on a single ticket, and a 2 hour connection can be enough for international to domestic or domestic to international transfers. In the current pattern, with posted departure delays running from about 75 to 90 minutes at Bush Intercontinental, those minimums are no longer safe.

Adept Traveler recommends that domestic passengers connecting through Bush Intercontinental tonight aim for at least 2 hours between inbound and outbound flights on a single ticket, with 2.5 hours being more comfortable when options exist. For international connections, especially those that involve clearing immigration and customs in Houston before rechecking bags, travelers should target 3 hours or more, recognizing that evening storms could still trigger temporary ramp closures or additional holds that compress available time.

Separate tickets are particularly risky in this environment. If your inbound flight into Houston is on one reservation and your onward flight is on another, the minimum practical connection time is closer to 4 hours, because the second carrier has no obligation to reaccommodate you if the first flight is delayed and you miss check in cutoffs. Where possible, same day travelers on separate tickets should work to move either the inbound or the outbound to the next morning rather than rely on a tight evening sprint through a weather impacted hub.

At Hobby, where most operations are Southwest, connections remain somewhat more forgiving because the airport is smaller and most transfers happen within a single terminal. Even so, passengers should still treat 75 to 90 minute Hobby connections as tight until the current storm system fully clears the region.

Backup Routing And Same Day Alternatives

Given the widespread nature of the storms and the concurrent delays at Dallas Fort Worth, Dallas Love Field, Austin Bergstrom, and San Antonio, Houston travelers do not have a perfect backup hub to pivot to. However, there are still a few practical moves that can reduce misconnect risk.

For travelers holding United tickets with Houston connections, one option is to ask agents or chat support about rerouting through other United hubs such as Denver, Chicago O Hare, or Washington Dulles, even if that means slightly longer total travel time. With Dallas Fort Worth also under pressure from the same storm system, aircraft and crew availability there may be tighter than usual, but moving away from the immediate Houston weather footprint can still pay off.

Southwest passengers at Hobby can ask about shifting to itineraries that connect through airports on the western or eastern edges of the storm zone, such as Phoenix, Las Vegas, or Atlanta, instead of doubling through Texas. Travelers on American or Delta who were originally scheduled to connect through Houston can explore options via Dallas Fort Worth, Atlanta, or other hubs where the main impact is volume related delay rather than direct thunderstorm holds.

If airlines run out of same day options into smaller regional destinations, it can be smarter to accept an overnight connection at a major hub with better hotel and rebooking support rather than risk a very tight late night regional hop that could still cancel. Travelers with flexibility on dates can also shift nonessential trips to later in the week, after this specific storm system and the current ground stop risk have passed.

Background: How FAA Ground Stops Work

Ground stops are one of several air traffic control tools that the FAA uses to manage safety and flow when conditions at an airport or in en route airspace fall below normal thresholds. In a ground stop, departures from one or more origin airports destined for the affected field are held on the ground before takeoff, either until a specific time or until conditions improve, rather than being sent into airborne holding patterns near their destination.

For thunderstorms and tornado risk, the trigger can be a combination of active lightning near the runways, low cloud ceilings, heavy rain, wind shear, or confirmed tornado activity that makes it unsafe to launch or land aircraft. Once the most severe conditions pass, the FAA often converts a ground stop into a ground delay program, where flights are assigned controlled departure times to meter demand into the constrained airport.

For passengers, the key is to understand that a ground stop or ground delay at Bush Intercontinental can have knock on effects even if your own flight is not technically under a stop order. Aircraft and crews may be out of position, upstream flights may arrive late, and gate congestion can cascade into later banks. The same holds true for Hobby when storms sit over the city, even if the formal FAA program is lighter.

What Travelers Should Do Next

Travelers scheduled to depart from or connect through George Bush Intercontinental Airport or William P Hobby Airport tonight should start with the basics. Check flight status in your airline app frequently, sign up for text or push alerts, and watch for gate or time changes as the weather evolves. Build extra time into airport commutes in case of flooded roadways, downed trees, or traffic around the terminals.

If your Houston connection is under 2 hours on a domestic itinerary or under 3 hours on an international itinerary, contact your airline proactively to ask about moving to a later flight or rerouting through another hub before lines grow at check in and service counters. Travelers who see cascading delays on upstream flights should consider protecting themselves with an overnight layover rather than relying on an extremely late arrival and last short hop that might not operate if crews time out.

Finally, keep a close eye on wider Texas and Gulf Coast coverage, including Adept Traveler's broader daily outlook in Flight Delays And Airport Impacts: November 24, 2025, which tracks storms and air traffic control programs across the United States, and pair it with evergreen guidance on handling weather delays and misconnects at major hubs so that today's Houston specific decisions feed into better planning later in the week.