‘Hurricane hunters’ go eye to eye with Felicia
Advertiser Staff
Air Force Reserve “hurricane hunters” flew through Hurricane Felicia today for the first time to gather data as the storm churns toward Hawaii.
The trip through the hurricane was mild, though punctuated with a few seat-gripping bumps and periodic turbulence that required crew to put on their seatbelts.
The hurricane hunters mission into Felicia left Hickam Air Force Base at 4:50 a.m., with eight crew members and a number of media representatives on board. The crew plowed their way through the hurricane four times, each time dropping instrumentation in and near the center of the storm.
Along the way, the flight hit a few rough spots and the pilot spotted one part of the hurricane he called “nasty.”
By 11:30 a.m., the crew was preparing to go through the storm a third time.
In the cockpit, Capt. Marc McAllister, the pilot, motioned to a radar image of Felicia, pointing out the storm’s lack of structure. “When hurricanes hit cooler waters, they tend to dissipate,” he said. “That’s kind of what we’re seeing here.”
The plane stayed in the air for more than 12 hours — about half of which was spent getting to the storm and then back to the Islands. The team is scheduled to make a second flight into the hurricane tonight, and two more tomorrow.
Some 75 hurricane hunters, members of the 53rd Reconnaissance Squadron from Biloxi, Miss., arrived in Hawaiçi on Friday to fly through Felicia. The hunters fly C-130s — three of which made the journey to the Islands. On each mission, the reservists make multiple passes through the eye of the hurricane to collect data for the National Weather Service.
The reservists fly into hurricanes in the Pacific and Atlantic oceans. They also gather data for major winter storms.
At 5 p.m. today, Hurricane Felicia continued to weaken and had maximum sustained wind speeds of 75 mph, the Central Pacific Hurricane Center said.
But officials say even though Felicia isn’t a strong hurricane doesn’t mean it won’t pack a punch as a tropical storm.
“Just be prepared,” said Delores Clark, spokeswoman for the National Weather Service.
