Hurricane hunters on the heels of Hurricane Ophelia

  • Published
  • By Master Sgt. Orville F. Desjarlais Jr.
  • Air Force Print News
SAN ANTONIO --  Air Force Reserve Command’s Hurricane Hunters are tracking Hurricane Ophelia as it bumps its way along the East Coast, packing 80 mph maximum sustained winds as of Sept. 14.

Ophelia is no Katrina, but it still warrants coastal warnings from the National Hurricane Center, which relies heavily on the Hurricane Hunters’ expertise.

Using specially equipped WC-130J Hercules aircraft, members of the 53rd Weather Reconnaissance Squadron flew into Ophelia Sept. 14 to try to determine the steering winds around the storm.

“These winds will tell us where it is headed next,” said 1st Lt. Tina Young, an aerial reconnaissance weather officer whose job is to direct missions into storms. And not just over a storm, but into a storm’s eye. That is the only way the crew can gather the data it needs.

Once inside the eye of a hurricane, the crew releases a 16-inch long cylinder called a dropsonde, which measures atmospheric pressure, temperature, humidity, barometric pressure, wind speed and direction as it descends slowly using a small parachute.

Once this information is gathered, they send it directly to the National Hurricane Center which provides it to the media. The media then alerts Americans who are in harm’s way.

“We find our jobs very rewarding,” Lieutenant Young said. “We know how valuable our information is, especially now after Katrina.”

Although the lieutenant didn’t gather data about Hurricane Katrina, her home was damaged by it. Because the squadron is based at Keesler Air Force Base, Miss., many of its members’ homes were destroyed. The unit had to relocate to Dobbins Air Reserve Base, Ga., in order to continue its mission of tracking storms, like Hurricane Ophelia.

“I would estimate that 70 percent of our people were directly affected by Katrina … their homes were either damaged or, in some cases, destroyed,” said Lt. Col. James Linder, the squadron’s commander.

The squadron expects to continue to work out of Dobbins until Keesler recovers.

The Hurricane Hunters are the only Department of Defense organization still flying into tropical storms and hurricanes since 1944.

To learn more about the Hurricane Hunters, visit www.hurricanehunters.com, or the National Hurricane Center’s site at http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/

(Air Force Reserve Command Public Affairs contributed to this story)