Even during extreme weather events like tropical hurricanes, the wind speeds that occur are generally well below the speed of sound. This justifies the simplifying assumption of an incompressible fluid in most simulations. Literature shows that the influence of compressibility on relevant parameters, such as the drag coefficient, is on the order of only a few percent and can therefore be neglected for many practical applications. The same applies to thermally induced flows with small density differences, where the assumption of incompressibility also remains justified.
However, there are limits to this simplification: at very high speeds or when simulating pressure waves, such as those that occur during explosions, the assumption of incompressible flow is no longer valid. In such cases, more complex models that account for the fluid's compressibility must be used to achieve accurate results.