A remote pilot is finishing the last of three real estate shoots scheduled for the day. A Convective SIGMET was issued 20 minutes ago for an area 25 miles west, and cumulonimbus buildups are visible on the western horizon. The current shoot location has clear skies and calm winds. The listing agent needs the shots today. What is the correct decision?
Why →Convective SIGMETs are issued for severe thunderstorm activity and typically move at 25 to 40 knots. A 25-mile buffer can close in under an hour. Drones are particularly vulnerable to outflow gusts which can arrive tens of miles ahead of the visible storm front. FAA ADM guidance for convective weather is to avoid by at least 20 nautical miles with additional buffer for movement direction. A storm moving east at 30 knots reaches the shoot location in 50 minutes.
The trap →The proceed-with-a-compressed-plan and proceed-normally answers reason from the current observation, not the forecast. Convective weather is the textbook case where the forecast outpaces what the sky looks like now. Pilots who wait until they see the storm are often too late to secure equipment.
Field note →Outflow winds from a distant thunderstorm can hit 50+ knots in clear skies. The gust front is the risk, not just the visible cell.