Hurricane Hunters by Sharon Fabian

Hurricane Hunters By Sharon Fabian

1 Aviators with the 53rd Weather Reconnaissance Squadron (53rd WRS) of the U.S. Air Force Reserve fly right into the eye of a hurricane. Since 1944, this group, known as the Hurricane Hunters, has been flying into hurricanes to get data that can't be gotten any other way. Even modern radar and satellites can't obtain the life saving information that these adventurous airmen send back.

2 The Hurricane Hunters send back information about the wind speed, air pressure, and temperature in a hurricane. They can pinpoint the pressure center of the hurricane. They look for drops in the pressure, which are signs that a storm is strengthening. The Hurricane Hunters have improved the forecasting of hurricanes, and they make it possible to issue earlier warnings that may save people's lives.

3 A Hurricane Hunter's plane carries a crew of five to fifteen people, including the flight crew and meteorologists. This may include a pilot, a copilot, a flight engineer, and a navigator, a chief meteorologist, a dropsonde operator, and a weather officer.

4 The survival equipment that they carry includes life preservers, rafts, and survival gear. It does not include parachutes, since bailing out in a hurricane would be more dangerous that staying inside the plane.

5 The plane carries enough fuel for up to fourteen hours of flight. The average flight lasts from ten to eleven hours, and includes four passes through the eye of the hurricane. The heavy plane takes off from a mile-long runway, and the crew all wear earplugs since it is very loud inside the plane. Their destination will be the eye of a hurricane out over the ocean, since that is where hurricanes begin.

6 The eye is the center of a hurricane. It is usually 20 to 40 miles in diameter. The eye is an area with clear skies, low winds, and warm temperatures in the center of a hurricane. It is the calm spot in the center of the storm. Surrounding the eye is the part called the eyewall. The eyewall is a donut shaped ring of thunderstorms. It can have winds gusting up to 200 miles per hour. Surrounding the eyewall is the rest of the hurricane.

7 As the plane enters the hurricane, it becomes surrounded by clouds. The crew can't see much of anything but gray clouds. They don't feel the winds from inside their plane. Things change as they approach the eyewall. They notice heavy rain, like sheets of water on the plane's windows. Everyone fastens his or her seatbelt. The plane may drop suddenly from the changing winds, updrafts and downdrafts. The eyewall is a place of heavy turbulence. This is where the crew feels the full force of the hurricane. They may feel a little airsick. Everything changes again as the plane enters the eye. All of a sudden, they are in clear, sunny weather under beautiful blue skies. Surrounding this beautiful spot on all sides are the dark, menacing clouds of the eyewall. Below is the ocean at its most violent, with waves of up to 60 feet high. The eye of a hurricane has been described as a place of "powerful beauty," and also as a "giant football stadium made of clouds."

8 At the very center of the eye, the dropsonde operator drops a tube containing weather instruments and a radar transmitter into the ocean. This sends back critical information about the amount of pressure at sea level in the center of the storm. The weather officer types and sends out the information to the National Weather Center. From this information, meteorologists can make good predictions about what the storm will do next. They can issue warnings to alert the public.

9 If you would like to see for yourself what it is like to fly into a hurricane, there are websites that allow you to take a cyber flight into the eye of a hurricane.

Name ______Science Pd ______Hurricane Hunters

1. This article is about _____. 2. The center of a hurricane is called the Severe weather warnings on _____. television Eyewall Missions of the Air Force Cloud People who fly into hurricanes to Eye obtain information Tropical depression Predicting the weather with radar and satellites

3. The ring of storms surrounding the eye is 4. A Hurricane Hunter's plane carries enough called _____. fuel to fly about _____ hours. A cloud 40 An eyewall 14 A tropical depression 10 An eye 20

5. The Hurricane Hunters are part of the 6. The eye of a hurricane has _____ weather. _____. Stormy Navy Seals Fair Air Force Reserve Rainy Meteorologists Association Cold

Army National Guard

7. The _____ drops instruments into the 8. Would you like to be a Hurricane Hunter? ocean to take measurements of the Why? pressure at sea level. Dropsonde operator Copilot Meteorologist Pilot