Air Force’s Hurricane Hunters Fly Into Hurricane Hermine

The following is a release from Senior Airman Heather Heiney, 403rd Wing Public Affairs:

The Air Force Reserve’s 53rd Weather Reconnaissance Squadron flew a fix mission Sept. 1 out of Keesler Air Force Base into Tropical Storm Hermine, which was upgraded to a hurricane mid-flight.

In the afternoon, Hermine had max wind speeds of 70 mph at the surface, with a center about 110 miles due south of Panama City Beach, Fla., and was heading north, northeast at 16 mph. Hermine is the first named storm to hit the Gulf in the 2016 hurricane season and the first to hit the Florida coast since 2005.

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This mission was flown at 5,000 feet above the surface of the ocean at an average of 350 mph to collect data for the National Hurricane Center. The top of a typical hurricane ranges from about 40,000 to 60,000 feet above the surface of the ocean, so when the Hurricane Hunters fly a storm they aren’t flying over it — they’re flying directly into it. The closer to the surface of the ocean the crew flies, the more data they can collect.

“We stay as low …Read the Rest

Source:: Tactical Life