As the earth gets warmer, that flight to Europe may get bumpier.

Rising levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere could increase the frequency of turbulence over the North Atlantic by 170 percent and its intensity by 40 percent by the middle of the century, according to British climate researchers writing in the journal Nature Climate Change.

In addition to rattled fliers, the rise in turbulence could mean higher costs for airlines, because pilots typically fly around turbulence rather than through it. “Our study shows that the amount of air space containing significant turbulence is most likely to double,” said the study’s lead author, Paul D. Williams, an atmospheric scientist at the University of Reading (projected patches of turbulence are in lighter tones in the figure below). “Therefore, if they want to avoid it, pilots won’t be able to fly in a straight line, but they will have to take on a wiggly, more circuitous flight path.” That could lead to longer flights, more delays and a greater expenditure of fuel (which would add more carbon dioxide to the atmosphere).