Into the storm IV

  • Published
  • By Steve Hart
  • Hunter Army Airfield Public Affairs
Hunter Army Airfield, Savannah, Ga. --  Hurricane Irene is gone.

Prior to the videos showing the rampaging rivers in Vermont, New York, New Jersey, and surrounding states, there was a group of U.S. Air Force Reserve airmen who flew into the eye of Irene. The reason for their flight was to provide data to the National Hurricane Center in order for them to alert citizens about what was coming to the metropolitan areas of the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast.

On Aug. 26 the 53rd Weather Reconnaissance Squadron, known as the Hurricane Hunters sent the first of four WC-130J Super Hercules aircraft to Hunter Army Airfield from its home station at Keesler Air Force Base, Biloxi, Miss.

"We relocated to Hunter Army Airfield because it is ideally located as a staging base to fly our missions. It's two to three hours closer to the storm than Biloxi," said Lt. Col. Jason May, 53rd WRS commander.

This one-of-a-kind unit supports the NHC to provide valuable data for use in computer models to generate predictions of hurricane behavior and the general conditions of the atmosphere in which the hurricane is embedded.

"Ours is a very important mission as the information we provide the National Hurricane Center is used to save lives and protect property by issuing watches, warnings, forecasts and analyses of hazardous weather conditions," said Lt. Col. Sean Pierce,  53rd WRS director of operations.

The WC-130J is a high-wing, medium-range aircraft used in weather reconnaissance missions. It is configured with palletized weather instrumentation for penetration of tropical disturbances and storms, hurricanes and winter storms to obtain data on movement, size and intensity.

According to May, who served as co-pilot on a mission that flew into the storm's eye Aug. 28, the data his aircraft and crew collected increases the NHC's knowledge of and accuracy in predicting the storm by 20 to 30 percent.

During the nine hour flight, the crew dropped GPS-guided dropsonde every 400 miles over the Atlantic Ocean. This critical piece of weather equipment is about 16 inches long and 3.5 inches in diameter and weighs approximately 2.5 pounds. The dropsonde is equipped with a high-frequency radio and other sensing devices. As the instrument descends to the sea surface, it measures and relays to the aircraft a vertical atmospheric profile of the temperature, humidity, barometric pressure and wind data.

In order to assist the general public's understanding of the Hurricane Hunter mission, media are occasionally invited to fly on storm missions. For the Aug. 28 flight, the Weather Channel and WTOC-TV (Savannah's CBS affiliate) were on board.

"I was surprised we didn't get tossed around more than we did," said Dal Cannady, WTOC-TV's bureau chief.

As the remnants of Hurricane Irene began to dissipate over Canada (as of Aug. 29), its trail of destruction of over 1,100 miles of the U.S. coastline, along with significant flooding and millions of citizens still without electricity, remain.

The destruction and loss of life could have been far worse were it not for the information provided to the American public by the National Weather Service due to data provided by the Hurricane Hunters.

"This was a historic mission. It is the first hurricane to go up the East Coast's shoreline, right up the Hudson River, in 60 years," said May. "This is probably the largest number of people that have been threatened by a single hurricane in the United States. I'm glad we could do our part to protect our citizens and their property."