I see this blog as sometimes delving into issues having to do with uses of aviation resources that are not specifically related to wildland firefighting. In prior years I have written about the use of NOAA and Air Force Reserve aircraft to hunt or fly into hurricanes, tropical storms. See for example this series that I wrote in 2015, some of the information in this 2015 series is dated but if you spend some time with those articles you can dive a little deeper into how Hurricane Hunter aircraft and crew do what they do. The two NOAA WP-3Ds have, to the best of my knowledge, been overhauled. Also, NOAA's hurricane hunters no longer fly out of Mac Dill, they fly out of Lakeland Linder Regional Airport in Lakeland, Florida. NOAA maintains and Aircraft Operations webpage that has more information on their program.
I spent some time on Monday helping a friend find their way around the National Weather Service's hurricane watches and warnings. This got me thinking about the great work that the NOAA and Air Force Reserve Hurricane Hunter aircraft and crew do in flying hurricanes to gather data that provide current meteorological data on the hurricanes. So, I decided to devote today's article to an overview of Hurricane Hunters.
NOAA has two specially equipped Lockheed WP-3 Orion "Hurricane Hunter" aircraft that fly into hurricanes, Miss Piggy and Kermit. NOAA's G-IV Jet flying above and around the storm, for more information on these aircraft go here. In addition to NOAA's to Hurricane Hunters, the 53rd Weather Reconnaissance Squadron "Hurricane Hunters" are under the 403rd Air Force Reserve Wing. The 53rd Weather Reconnaissance Squadron fly specially equipped WC-130J aircraft out of Keesler Air Force Base in Biloxi, Mississippi. For more information see this factsheet.
I conclude by sharing two videos with you where you can get a brief over view about what the Hurricane Hunters do. The first video is a walk around of Kermit taken at the 2019 EAA AirVenture. You will learn about a little about how the NOAA Hurricane Hunters are used to obtain data directly from a hurricane or tropical storm.
Direct link to video on YouTube from EAA
The final video is footage from ViceNews of a Hurricane Hunter from the 53 Weather Reconnaissance Squadron and NOAA's Hurricane Hunters flying into Irma a category 5 hurricanes in 2017.
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