What Do Hurricane Hunters Actually Do?

Would you fly an airplane straight into a hurricane? On purpose?

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The quick answer

Hurricane Hunters are crews who fly specially equipped planes right through tropical storms and hurricanes. They measure what is happening inside, so forecasters can tell people on the ground how strong the storm is and where it is going.

How it works

Go where satellites cannot
Satellites take amazing pictures from space, but they see mostly the tops of the clouds. To know the wind and air pressure inside the storm, somebody has to go in.
Fly an X through the eye
The crew flies straight through the storm, across the calm eye in the middle, and out the other side. Then they turn and cross again from another direction. From above, the path looks like a giant X.
Drop the dropsondes
Along the way they release dropsondes: tubes packed with sensors, about the size of a paper towel roll. Each one floats down on a little parachute, radioing back temperature, moisture, pressure and wind until it splashes into the ocean.
Send it to the forecasters
The measurements go straight to the National Hurricane Center, often while the plane is still in the air. They help decide the storm's category and where the forecast cone points.

Thunder Tidbits

There are two Hurricane Hunter teams in the United States: the Air Force Reserve's 53rd Weather Reconnaissance Squadron and NOAA's own aircraft crews.
Two of NOAA's planes are nicknamed Kermit and Miss Piggy. A third, a high-flying jet, is called Gonzo.
A single mission can last eight hours or longer and cross the eye several times.

Words to know

Eye: The calm, often clear center of a hurricane.
Eyewall: The ring of violent storms around the eye. It has the hurricane's strongest winds.
Dropsonde: A weather instrument dropped from a plane on a parachute.
Reconnaissance: A mission to go and gather information. Crews call it 'recon'.

Try it: Design your own dropsonde

Tape a paper cup to a parachute made from a plastic bag and string. Drop it from a safe height and time the fall with a stopwatch. Now change something, like a bigger parachute or a penny in the cup, and time it again. Real dropsondes are built to fall slowly enough to take lots of readings on the way down.

Stay safe

These flights are carefully planned and flown by trained crews in aircraft built for the job. For everyone else, the right place to be when a hurricane is coming is wherever local officials tell you to go.