Wind has huge influence on take-off, landing and cruising of aircraft. Therefore measuring wind direction and speed as well as evaluating its structure are the most important tasks in meteorological support of flights. Wind shear, which is characterized by rapid changes of speed and/or direction, is one of the most hazardous phenomena for aviation. This phenomenon exists mostly in low tropospheric jet streams, areas of active atmospheric fronts, near convective clouds and strong temperature inversions. The paper proves that wind shear is mainly dependent on non-uniform layout of ascending and descending air currents and shows that this phenomenon can be detected by using ground sensors (ultrasonic anemometers), remote sensing methods (sodars, radars, wind profilers) and data from numerical mesoscale models.