Met Mailbag is your chance to have a Weather Plus Meteorologist answer your weather question. Each Thursday, our NBC Weather Pulse Blog will publish the answers to questions you send us. This week's question was answered by NBC Weather Plus Meteorologist Elise Finch.

Question: What is wind shear and why does it affect flying
Submitted by Bobbi Willig, Glenside, Pa.

Answer: Thanks for the question Bobbi. Wind shear refers to the change in wind speed and/or wind direction between two points in the atmosphere. Depending on where those two points are, wind shear can be vertical or horizontal. Small amounts of wind shear are common and can be found from the top of the atmosphere to the ground. Larger values typically exist near fronts or the jet stream. Wind shear is an important factor in the determining the severity of thunderstorms.

When it comes to flying, wind shear is an issue because changes in wind speed and direction create swirls of air…and those swirls of air create turbulence. Turbulence can shake an airplane, no matter how big, and make a flight very uncomfortable and in some cases dangerous.

Another concern if an aircraft experiences a sudden decrease in wind speed is that it can reduce the lift on its wings to dangerously low values. So people in the aviation field make it their business to know when large values of wind shear will be present along a flight paths.

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