Even without the issues of using hydrogen for lift, airships are very vulnerable to air conditions. You basically can't fly them in high winds or turbulence. If you get caught in a downdraft, it will smash the airship into the ground. That obviously limits when and where you can use them, but it also limits their practical range, because they need to be able to get back to a hangar before things start to get rough. Their hangars are also gigantic and expensive.
The part about using them in high winds, somewhat true, however they took advantage of prevailing winds, especially the trade winds, more often then not, and could fly away from storms faster than the storms move for the most part. Ther Germans didn't lose Zeppelins to bad weather, but the Americans did lose airships, quite often, because they designed round blimps instead of aerodynamic shaped cigars with large ailerons which allowed the German Zeppelins to fly smoothly directly into heavy winds.
While the German officers generally viewed Hindenburg as an all-weather ship, they were very sensitive to the danger of thunderstorms and generally kept their ship below the clouds so they could observe and assess threatening clouds before entering them. In Hugo Eckener’s 1919 instruction guide for zeppelin operations (the closest thing the crew of the Hindenburg had to a flight manual), Eckener stated: “The fundamental principle covering squalls and thunderstorms is: If possible, avoid such cloud formations!”
Thunderstorms presented two principal risks; the potential for structural damage, and the possible ignition of hydrogen by electrical activity. The Germans were very sensitive to the possibility of structural damage caused by the violent convective activity in and around thunderstorms (such as the structural failure which destroyed the USS Shenandoah). The Hindenburg’s officers were also aware of the danger posed by thunderstorms when operating with hydrogen as a lifting gas. Since the strong updrafts of a thunderstorm could cause the ship to rise above pressure height, resulting in the automatic release of flammable hydrogen in an electrically charged environment, Hindenburg’s officers generally went to great lengths to avoid operating in or near thunderstorms, and one of Hugo Eckener’s basic operating rules was that a zeppelin should never valve hydrogen in a thunderstorm.
Hindenburg was powered by four reversible 890 kW (1,190 hp) Daimler-Benz diesel engines which gave the airship a maximum speed of 135 km/h (84 mph). Although the Graf Zeppelin had the same engine car design in its early stages of construction, the pods were later completely redesigned to power tractor propellers. The engines had a water recovery system which captured the exhaust of the engines to minimize weight lost during flight.
In short, The winds would have to exceed 70 Mph to force a Zeppelin off course. Also the Americans sucked ass at designing airships, the best Navy Airships the B Class Blimps built by Curtiss Aircraft for the U.S. After WWI but before WWII had these performance characteristics.
Curtiss Class B Blimp General characteristics Length: 163 ft 0 in (49.70 m)
Diameter: 31 ft 6 in (9.60 m)
Volume: 84,000 ft3 (2,380 m3)
Powerplant: 1 × Curtiss OXX V-8, 100 hp (37 kW)
Performance
Maximum speed: 47 mph (76 km/h)[/B]
Cruise speed: 35 mph (56 km/h)
Range: 927 miles (1,492 km)
Endurance: 26 hours 30 min
So only 1/4 of the cruising range, and less than half the speed of a German Zeppelin. Later right before WWII the Navy introduced a new class of Blimp the K Class (based on German designs, ...of course) That performed much better. Before and during World War II, 134 K-class blimps were built, configured for patrol and anti-submarine warfare operations and were extensively used in the Navy’s anti-submarine efforts in the Atlantic and Pacific Ocean areas.
Curtiss K Class Blimp CharacteristicsGeneral characteristics
Crew: 9–10
Length: 251 ft 8 in (76.73 m)
Diameter: 57 ft 10 in (17.63 m)
Volume: 425,000 ft3 (12,043 m3)
Useful lift: 7,770 lb (3,524 kg)
Powerplant: 2 × Pratt & Whitney R-1340-AN-2 radials, 425 hp (317 kW) each
Performance
Maximum speed: 78 mph (125 km/h)
Cruise speed: 58 mph (93 km/h)
Range: 2,205 miles (3,537 km)
Endurance: 38 hours 12 min
The US Navy's experiences with K-ships in tropical regions showed a need for a blimp with greater volume than the K-class to offset the loss of lift due to high ambient temperatures. Goodyear addressed these concerns with a follow-on design, the M-class blimp, which was 50% larger.
Goodyear M Class Blimp CharacteristicsSpecifications (M-2)
General characteristics
Crew: 10-14
Length: 302 ft 0 in (92.07 m)
Diameter: 69 ft 6 in (21.19 m)
Height: 92 ft 6 in (28.20 m)
Volume: 647,000 ft3 (18,320 m3)
Useful lift: 10,000 lb (4,356 kg)
Powerplant: 2 × Pratt & Whitney R-1340-AN-2 radials, 550 hp (410 kW) each
Performance
Maximum speed: 80 mph (128 km/h)
Cruise speed: 58 mph (93 km/h)
Endurance: 50 hours 30 min
Armament
1 × .50 M2 machine gun
8 × 350 lb (159 kg) AN-Mk 47 depth charges
The Americans were always about twenty years behind the Germans in Zeppelin and Blimp design tech.
Performance Stats for the Hindenburg Specifications
Hindenburg-class airships were three times longer and twice as tall as a Boeing 747.
General characteristics
Crew: ca. 40
Capacity: ca. 50 passengers for LZ-129 (later upgraded to 72), 40 passengers for LZ-130
Length: 245.3 m (803 ft 10 in)
Diameter: 41.2 m (135 ft 0 in)
Volume: 200,000 m3 (7,100,000 ft3)
Useful lift: 10,000 kg (22,046 lb)
Powerplant: 4 × Daimler-Benz DB 602 16-cylinder diesel engines, 735 kW (1100 hp) each
Performance
Maximum speed: 131 km/h (81 mph)
Range: 5,153 Nautical Miles