Hurricane hunters hit strong turbulence flying into eye of Milton

Sarah Do Couto GlobalNews.ca

October 9, 2024 2:48 pm

Flying into the eye of Hurricane Milton with a P-3 Orion aircraft on Tuesday, NOAA’s Hurricane Hunters experienced a bumpy ride to collect some data, more than a day before the storm was predicted to make landfall in Florida.

Hurricane hunting isn’t for the faint of heart, especially when the storm is as severe as Hurricane Milton.

Researchers with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) shared a heart-racing video on Tuesday afternoon of a “bumpy ride” flying directly into the Category 4 hurricane.

NOAA’s Hurricane Hunters said they executed the flight mission to collect vital data about the storm, help improve forecasting and support overall hurricane research.

Pilots from the agency’s Aircraft Operations Center flew the plane — a Lockheed WP-3D Orion, affectionately nicknamed “Miss Piggy” for bearing an image of the famous Muppet on its side — through the storm over the Gulf of Mexico.

A Miss Piggy decal on a plane. — A Miss Piggy Muppets decal on a WP-3D Orion aircraft owned by NOAA. The agency said the image adds "a light touch to the important work conducted by NOAA."
NOAA

In the video, captured by NOAA integration engineer Nick Underwood, he and another researcher are seated on the plane but can barely see through the intense, rainy weather out the windows.

As they hit strong turbulence, both men are jostled from their seats as various loose items fall and fly through the plane’s cabin. Other crew members onboard can also be seen bracing amid the turbulence.

The turbulence leaves a mess, and leaves Underwood mostly speechless.

“Well, damn,” he laughs in the clip.

After exiting Hurricane Milton, the turbulence ended, and Miss Piggy flew on a much calmer course.

In a second video posted Tuesday by the NOAA Hurricane Hunters, the team said they released dropsondes into Milton. The specialized weather reconnaissance devices collect data of the surrounding atmosphere inside a storm to create a vertical profile for meteorologists.

Hurricane Milton has fluctuated between categories 3, 4 and 5 as it approached the Tampa Bay region of Florida. Regardless, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said the storm would be major and extremely dangerous to the region’s more than 3.3 million people.

The centre of Hurricane Milton is expected to make landfall late Wednesday.

Milton was centred about 190 miles (305 kilometres) southwest of Tampa late Wednesday morning and was a strong Category 4 storm with maximum sustained winds of 230 km/h, the hurricane centre reported. It was moving northeast at 28 km/h and is expected to remain a hurricane as it crosses Florida — including the heavily populated Orlando area — through Thursday.

It is not yet clear where exactly Hurricane Milton’s centre will come ashore along the central coast of Florida.

Milton is expected to hit communities still reeling two weeks after Hurricane Helene flooded streets and homes in western Florida during its devastating march that left at least 230 people dead across the South.

On Tuesday, the mayor of Tampa Bay had a blunt message for anyone opting not to evacuate in favour of riding out Hurricane Milton.

“If you choose to stay in one of those evacuation areas, you’re going to die,” Jane Castor said in an interview with CNN.

Canadians have been told to avoid unnecessary travel to Florida regions expected to be slammed by Hurricane Milton. This includes the half a million Canadians who own property in Florida.

Canadians already in Florida have been told to exercise caution and follow directions from local authorities.

— With files from Global News’ Uday Rana and The Associated Press