Hurricane Hunters fly inside Hurricane Helene for data: Here's what it looked like
Inside Hurricane Helene: Hundreds of lightning strikes
The @403rdWingAir Force Reserve Hurricane Hunters flew into, through, and above Hurricane Helene as it rapidly intensified across the Gulf of Mexico, before making landfall as a Category 4 hurricane over Florida's Big Bend region. The Hunters shared video of what Hurricane Helene looked like at night. Dozens, if not hundreds, of lightning flashes appear in video shared.
If turbulence mid-flight is enough to make you grab the armrests of the airplane seat on a sunny day, it's tough to imagine what the level of turbulence is like flying directly into a major hurricane with winds consistently stronger than 100 mph.
But, that's what the Hurricane Hunters do. They fly specialty planes directly into hurricanes to gather critical data on a storms' strength, size, and intensity. And they've given all of us a first-hand look at what it was like flying into Hurricane Helene, which rapidly intensified from a Category 2 hurricane to a major Category 4 storm before making landfall over Florida's Big Bend region.
Some of their experiences are below.
Flying through the eyewall of Hurricane Helene
NOAA's Hurricane Hunters aboard a Lockheed WP-3D Orion, nicknamed "Kermit," flew through the eyewall of Hurricane Helene on Thursday night, the same night Helene made landfall near Perry, Florida.
"This mission gathered crucial data of a large hurricane intensifying before landfall," the Hurricane Hunters said in a post on X, formerly Twitter.
What planes do the hurricane hunters fly in – and how do they work?
According to NOAAs website, these four turboengine prop planes are specially equipped with "a unique array of scientific instrumentation, radars and recording systems for measurements of the atmosphere, the earth and its environment."
When these planes fly through storms, they help fill in some of the gaps in the data that ground-based radar or satellites in space cannot provide.
"To obtain the best possible data within the storm environment, crewmembers deploy expendable probes called GPS dropwindsondes through a launch tube in the aircraft. As they parachute to the sea below, the probes transmit pressure, temperature, humidity, wind speed and wind direction data back to the aircraft."
That data then gets checked and transported to the National Centers for Environmental Prediction and the National Hurricane Center.
NOAA has two WP-3D Orion planes, nicknamed "Miss Piggy" and "Kermit." It's easy to tell the difference in videos because each one features the Muppet character in its cockpit.
NOAA's two planes have radar systems – lower fuselage and rail Doppler radar – attached to the airplane's belly. These two systems scan the storm horizontally and vertically, providing an "MRI-like look at the storm."
The U.S. Air Force 403rd Wing
While NOAA has its Hurricane Hunters, did you know that the U.S. Air Force does too?
Based at Keesler Air Force Base in Biloxi, Miss., the 43rd Weather Reconnaissance Squadron, which is part of the 403rd Wing, helped conduct weather-related missions on a regular basis. This team helps provide surveillance of tropical storms and hurricanes in the Atlantic, Caribbean, Gulf of Mexico, and the Pacific Ocean to assist the National Hurricane Center in Miami.
They fly aboard 10 WC-130J Hercules aircraft. These are high-wing, medium-range planes that have been "configured with palletized weather instrumentation for penetration of tropical disturbances and storms, hurricanes and winter storms to obtain data on movement, size and intensity," according to the unit's web page.
These planes can stay aloft for nearly 18 hours while cruising at 300 mph.
According to their website, the average weather mission usually lasts 11 hours, and spans 3,500 miles. Apparently, weather data can be reported every 60 seconds.
There are five people part of the flight crew: a pilot, co-pilot, navigator, aerial reconnaissance weather officer, and a weather reconnaissance loadmaster.