A319
Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Flight Crew Total 12829; Flight Crew Type 6675
Inflight Event / Encounter Weather / Turbulence
Flight Crew Took Evasive Action
Weather
[The following is in response to safety department questions]1. During your flight; you deviated north of [position] where another aircraft encountered severe turbulence. Did receipt of automatic PIREP alerting reports contribute to the decision to divert?Indirectly yes. We had already deviated from our course before [company flight] encountered severe turbulence. Receiving the PIREP Alert in conjunction with ATC guidance; after they had received a PIREP from [company flight] over the radio; helped us avoid the area. ATC helped with vectors.We also plotted the PIREP Alert we received via ACARS and saw that it had been on our scheduled route. Again; ATC notified us a few minutes before ACARS. ATC is more real time if their workload permits a relay of the occurrence to other aircraft.2. What other factors contributed to the decision to divert?Our Weather Radar info; the ATC notification and vectoring and the PIREP Alert System; all helped our decision. In fact; we had been thinking of leaving FL350 and climbing to FL370 to get farther on top of the Weather but stayed at FL350 after the ATC and PIREP Alert System notification of the severe turbulence encounter of [company flight] at FL370.3. Was the amount of turbulence related messages you received during the flight excessive? If so; how did it affect your flight deck workload and threat assessment of the turbulence ahead?The message was not excessive because it indicated turbulence in reference to a fix via cardinal direction information and distance information. Those PIREP Advisories can be quickly analyzed on our Airbus aircraft by using the FIX page on the FMGC. We actually received a few PIREP Advisory messages while traversing that area and they were not excessive due to our FMGC capability to pin-point the location very quickly and with little effort. I would like to add the following. The PIREP Advisory Area System- were we get an AREA of turbulence; defined by multiple cardinal direction information and distance from a fix; are extremely difficult/time consuming to draw on our FMGC. The time required to draw those out is too excessive and distracting for the crew. I think they are a great source of information; but they should be provided in a graphic format. The textual format is just not practical in my opinion.
A319 Captain reported being alerted to an area of turbulence via the PIREP Advisory system and stated the information would be more useful in graphic rather than text format.