We tried to go inside a Hurricane Hunter airplane! Alas, the rest of western Puerto Rico did, too.
NOAA (the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) and the U.S. Air Force Reserve hosted a series of events this spring in preparation for hurricane season in Mexico and the Caribbean, to help people prepare for upcoming storms. They brought their big Hurricane Hunter plane to Aguadilla, about an hour from our Cabo Rojo home, and we headed north excited by the prospect of seeing the inside of the Air Force Reserve Command’s WC-130J “Hurricane Hunter” aircraft and learning how scientists collect data about hurricanes.
What we got was something completely different, a street-fair atmosphere of rescue workers, local communities, and emergency preparedness info — and an hours-long line to get inside the Hurricane Hunter aircraft. We decided to take a pass.
The National Hurricane Center held the event so that hurricane specialists could educate residents of vulnerable communities and discuss hurricane preparedness, resilience, and how they can become “weather-ready.”
The Atlantic Hurricane Season runs from June through November. The areas covered include the Atlantic Ocean, Gulf of Mexico, and the Caribbean Sea.
Here is some valuable information from the NOAA website:
“During hurricanes, military air crews fly state-of-the-art WC-130J aircraft directly into the core of the storm to gather critical data for forecasting a hurricane’s intensity and landfall. The data are sent in real time via satellite from the aircraft directly to the NHC for analysis and use by hurricane forecasters.
“During the 2022 hurricane season, the 53rd Weather Reconnaissance Squadron flew 109 missions into 13 named storms in the Atlantic and east Pacific basins, including Hurricanes Ian and Nicole in the Atlantic and Hurricanes Agatha, Kay, Orlene, and Roslyn in the east Pacific.
“The NOAA Hurricane Hunters, stationed at the Aircraft Operations Center in Lakeland, Florida, also fly missions into tropical cyclones to gather data to support storm forecasts and research. Their Lockheed WP-3D Orion and Gulfstream IV-SP aircraft are piloted by NOAA Commissioned Corps officers and crewed by NOAA meteorologists, technicians, and researchers.”
We never got inside the aircraft, but you can take a virtual tour here.
INFO
NOAA
Hurricane Hunters Awareness Tours
Hurricane Hunter Events
