2018 Hurricane Season: Hurricane Hunters flying Hurricane Florence

Updated on December 20, 2020: the video that I had originally shared here was from USA Today and is no longer available.

I expect that many of you in the United States know that Hurricane Florence is in the western atlantic making its way to a possible land fall in the southeastern United States as a category 4 hurricane sometime Thursday night into Friday.

According to the plan of the day from the National Hurricane Center for September 10, 2018, see below, there are four Hurricane Hunter flights into Florence. Teal refers to C-130s from the 53rd Weather Reconnaissance Squadron. NOAA 49 is NOAA's Gulfstream IV high altitude research aircraft.

I have a very high level of respect for all who crew the Hurricane Hunters. What you do is very dangerous. You do this to provide data to the NHC for their forecasts. The NHC forecasts in turn are used by the National Weather Service Weather Forecast Offices as they issue products to warn their residents of upcoming impacts of a hurricane or tropical storm. The impacts of a hurricane or tropical storm may be felt many miles for the center of storm. Stay safe and please heed any evacuations.