Moderate and heavy rain can create a thin layer of water on the lifting surfaces, reducing lift and increasing drag as new droplets roughen that water on the wing.
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For the most part, rain doesn't interfere with flights. Heavy rain will only become an issue when visibility is reduced near the runway or unique weather phenomena is present that cause rain droplets to freeze onto the aircraft. In general, airplanes can handle significant amounts of rain without issue!
Rain doesn't usually affect a flight much. Combining with hefty winds causes extra challenges to flight planning. The combo can even cause a change of route or a delay if the conditions are extreme. But generally speaking, airplanes are well-equipped to deal with a bit of the wet stuff!
EFFECT ON WEIGHT AND SPEEDRaindrops striking an aircraft lose momentum on impact and in a torrential downpour, of 500 mm/hr for 20 seconds, can theoretically cause a 4 kt loss of airspeed for a Boeing 747 in cruise configuration. The effect in the approach configuration is unknown but likely to be greater.
This is because moist air is actually less dense than dry air (water vapor weighs less than air, which is why clouds float). Stormy, rainy days allow loud sounds to travel further, which can create louder days when reverse flow wind conditions force arriving San Francisco traffic to fly low over the East Bay.
Yes, planes can fly in rain. Nowadays, airplanes are designed to fly in most weather conditions, even heavy rain. Even small planes can comfortably fly in heavy rain. Rain only becomes a threat when associated with other weather conditions, such as snow, thunderstorms, or ice.
With this in mind, horizontal winds (also known as “crosswinds”) in excess of 30-35 kts (about 34-40 mph) are generally prohibitive of take-off and landing. As far as how this happens, it depends on where you are in flight.
Jet aircraft can safely fly over thunderstorms only if their flight altitude is well above the turbulent cloud tops. The most intense and turbulent storms are often the tallest storms, so en route flights always seek to go around them.
At night, it's not that we can't hear the sound of an airplane since the sound coming from it could still reach the ground but instead this noise is not that loud. Airplanes are advised to fly higher during nighttime to minimize the noise pollution it causes. So the sound intensity could go lesser as it reaches you.