By noaa.gov.
This past hurricane season is history, and it’s several months until the official start of the next season on June 1. You might think the crews of the NOAA and USAF Reserve hurricane hunter aircraft get a break during that time. Not at all! They fly winter storm missions as well.
NOAA’s WP-3D Orion pictured at Ted Stevens International Airport in Anchorage, AK, during the Ocean Winds Winter research project, February 12, 2021. The WP-3D flew into winter storms over the North Pacific Ocean to gather information on ocean surface wind conditions to help test, calibrate, and validate instruments flown on NOAA weather satellites. (Image credit: Damon Sans Souci/NOAA)
For the past two decades, from the beginning of November to the middle of April, two types of aircraft, the NOAA G-IV and the USAF Reserve WC-130J, have been flying over the Gulf of Mexico, along the U.S East Coast and even over the Pacific Ocean to gather data on winter storms that could have big impacts of wind, rain, freezing rain, sleet and snow and storm surge.
The number of aircraft in the NOAA and USAF Reserve Hurricane Hunter fleet
Read more at noaa.gov.
