BILOXI, Mississippi – Their job is considered one of the most important parts of forecasting a hurricane.
Known by their nickname, the ‘Hurricane Hunters,’ members of the 53rd Weather Reconnaissance Squadron fly right into the eye of tropical systems to help keep you and your family safe.
Stationed at Keesler Air Force Base in Biloxi, Mississippi, the Hurricane Hunters is a component of the 403 Wing of the U.S. Air Force. They’re the only routinely flying weather reconnaissance team in the world.
“We’re going to get into this storm so I can make sure we get the most information out to the National Hurricane Service and everyone back home,” pilot Major Alex Boykin said.
It’s a loud, bumpy but important part of making the hurricane forecast cone even more accurate.
“Our primary mission is to take the coordinates to the National Hurricane Center, get gives us and define the exact center of the storm,” Aerial Reconnaissance Weather Officer Lt. Col. Kaitlin McLaughlin said.
They do so aboard a variety of jets. Our ride is a WC-130J—a modified C-130 decked out to become essentially a flying weather laboratory.
These flights aren’t quick or cheap. Crews on the ground load the plane with 60,000 pounds of jet fuel so we can stay airborne for well over 10 hours.
After taking off, we flew straight towards Helene, which was between the Yucatan Peninsula and Cuba at the time.
Once near the eye of the hurricane, Hurricane Hunters will deploy dropsondes, a small, tube-like contraption that can feed back weather data in real time to the plane. Instantaneously, they can learn more about the wind speed, direction, pressure, temperature and more. Other dropsondes go below the sea surface to measure temperature and other data.
“We actually do those coordinated with the U.S. Navy, and it’s for research purposes,” Lt. Col. McLaughlin said.
All of this is verified and shared with the National Hurricane Center in Miami, who in turn uses this data to fine-tune forecasts and research.
“It’s vital to have these assets in the storm, continuously as it approaches the United States to really get the proper forecast correct and get the word out to everybody,” said Major Boykin.
On top of the manually collected weather data, the airplane is also sharing data with the National Hurricane Center every ten minutes, keeping meteorologists on the ground up to date with the storm that’s nearly a living, breathing and moving creature.
Gage Goulding: “Has there been anything that jumped out to you different as you been flying this storm.”
Lt. Col. McLaughlin: “It is slightly weaker than we had expected. But don’t misinterpret that.”
As Major Boykin pointed out on our return to Keesler Air Force Base, the data we just collected is already old news.
Major Boykin: “As we were coming back into land, we have one of our other crews, an aircraft, is already taking off to pick back up where we just left off.”
Gage Goulding: “We’re not even on the ground, and there’s another crew just like this one headed back to where we just came from?”
Major Boykin: “Yeah, they actually just passed us in the air. So, they’re heading out to get right back into the storm.”
On our flight, we didn’t see that perfect eye wall or even experience all that much turbulence.
For these men and women, many just like our pilot, are adding just another notch in their belt.
“After tonight, I’ve got through a hurricane, Cat 1 or above, 64 times,” Major Boykin said.
All while collecting incredibly important, life-saving information that the hurricane forecast cone counts on.