.jpg "Members of the 53rd Weather Reconnaissance Squadron Hurricane Hunters prep their gear Saturday at the Henry E. Rohlsen Airport for their return to Mississippi.")
With clear blue skies above, the 53rd Weather Reconnaissance Squadron Hurricane Hunters packed gear and equipment in anticipation of their return to the Keesler Air Force Base in Biloxi, Miss.
The squadron is a component of the 403rd Wing of the U.S. Air Force. The Hurricane Hunters provide surveillance and weather data of tropical storms and hurricanes in the Atlantic Ocean, the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico for the National Hurricane Center in Miami.
From May to December of each year, the Hurricane Hunters operate out of St. Croix’s Henry E. Rohlsen Airport.
“Unlike a typical military organization, our primary mission is a humanitarian mission. Our job is to provide data to the National Hurricane Center … to help them produce an accurate forecast of hurricanes and tropical storms for the public” said Lt. Col. Jonathan Talbot, the mission commander.
The hunters deploy to the Virgin Islands during the hurricane season with three 10 WC-130J aircrafts equipped with meteorological data-gathering instruments and three crews, plus staff, about 60 people in all.
The crews for each flight are comprised of five personnel: pilot, co-pilot, navigator, flight meteorologist and weather reconnaissance loadmaster. The pilot, who serves as the aircraft commander, and the co-pilot man the flight controls. The navigator keeps track of the aircraft’s position and movement and monitors radar to avoid tornadic activity. The flight meteorologist acts as flight director and observes and records meteorological data at flight level using a computer that encodes weather data every 30 seconds. The weather reconnaissance loadmaster collects and records vertical meteorological data using a parachute-borne sensor known as a dropsonde. It measures and encodes weather data down to the ocean surface. During their mission period on St. Croix, the Hurricane Hunters fly around the clock collecting data.
“You can only get so much information from satellite data. Having this extra high resolution information provides a better warning service for the public, it allows emergency management for what to expect as well as evacuate people.
Hurricanes cause a lot of property and infrastructure damage. One advantage of the work done by the Hurricane Hunters is the ability to narrow the forecasted path of the weather system. It makes the warning area about 15 percent better. That translates to a lot of saved money.
This was a less active hurricane year than previous years, Talbot said. The National Hurricane Center recorded eight systems this year, with two tropical storms, four hurricanes and two major hurricanes. For the 2013 hurricane season the National Hurricane Center recorded 14 major weather systems with only two becoming hurricanes.
The Hurricane Hunters will spend a week packing up gear and equipment ahead of their journey back to their base in Mississippi. Every spring the Hurricane Hunters brings their crew, staff and personnel along with cargo and then return in the winter. It will take three to four flights to carry around 50,000 to 60,000 pounds of cargo off the island.
Although there is a lot of cargo to return with, the Hurricane Hunters save time and resources by “having all the parts and supplies increasing the ability to repair the aircraft and equipment on island without waiting for parts to fly in,” Talbot said.
