I saw this today in southwest Oklahoma. China Airlines 747 just 20 minutes after takeoff from DFW at FL430, a Southwest 737 at FL410, and a couple of business jets at FL450. And these are just garden variety storms; radar echo tops are all under FL300.
Wonder if they’re all having a contest.
Tim
Winds aloft image below will clear up your question (time sensitive)
or go to aviationweather.gov/std_brief/ and check out constant pressure charts for other flight levels.
http://www.nco.ncep.noaa.gov/pmb/nwprod/analysis/namer/nam/00/images/nam_200_000l.gif
Well, one guy at FL 450 is going into the wind, one is going out of it.
Dunno on that one. Ground speeds are quite different.
Cardinal rules for westbound traffic are normally even numbers I.E. 42, 44K, maybe pireps for turbulence at may have caused the westbound to climb or descend to 45K
You would be amazed at what difference of 1000 feet makes in ride quality.
All conjecture regarding pireps on my part, but a very real possibility.