2018 Hurricane Season: Hurricane Lane

As Hurricane Lane heads towards the Hawaiian Islands, see this public advisory (#40A) from the Central Pacific Hurricane Center (CPHC)  with sustained winds of 105 mph (category 2 on the Saffir-Simpson Scale, my prayers are with the Hawaiian Islands. I found out the last Hurricane Hunter reconnaissance flight was on Wednesday August 22 local time (mission 12 into Lane, AF 307), see this page showing reconnaissance missions into Hurricane Lane from tropicaleastpacfic and an archive of 2018 hurricane hunter flights may be found here. Mission 12 was the last reconnaissance flight into Lane, the last flight into Lane was the Gulfstream (G-IV), NOAA 9, mission 13. This was in order to have enough lead time to safely evacuate all personnel, aircraft and equipment, see this notice for more information. AF307 is a C130 from the 53rd Weather Reconnaissance Squadron. What the men and women who crew the various hurricane hunter aircraft is very dangerous, they do this to protect us. I can not adequately say how proud all those who crew the various hurricane hunter aircraft, and their support team on the ground. I am very proud of them.

August 25, 2018 12:30 EDT update: Lane has been downgraded to a tropical storm, see this August 24th update from the US National Weather Service Honolulu & Central Pacific Hurricane Center Facebook Page. Alternatively, you can go to the latest public advisory (#45) from the CPHC

I don't have a video of a hurricane hunter reconnaissance mission into Lane to share with you, but I did find one from July 18th from U.S. Military Generation of a flight of a C130 from the 53rd Weather Reconnaissance Squadron flying into tropical storm Chris.


Direct link to video on Youtube