The US Air Force Reserve’s 53rd Weather Reconnaissance Squadron (53rd WRS), otherwise known as the ‘Hurricane Hunters’, flew their eighth and final mission into Hurricane Milton on 9 October 2024, collecting data to assist National Hurricane Center (NHC) forecasters.
As a Category 5 hurricane on 6 October while still in the Gulf of Mexico, Milton made landfall on Florida’s Gulf Coast on 9 October near Siesta Key as a Category 3 hurricane and weakened to a Category 1 as it made its way across the state, according to the NHC.
Although significant preparations and an effective response by emergency services meant that only 16 or so people were killed by Hurricane Milton, first responders had to rescue around 1,000 people and around 2.5 million households were still without power – and some neighbourhoods without safe drinking water – by 11 October. Milton arrived in Florida in the wake of Hurricane Helene two weeks previously: the fourth deadliest storm to make landfall in the United States since 1950.
Flying out of Keesler Air Force Base in Biloxi, Mississippi, as a component of the Air Force Reserve’s 403rd Wing, the 53rd WRS operates a fleet of 10 WC-130J Super Hercules aircraft equipped with palletised meteorological data-gathering instruments. WC-130Js carry a basic crew of five: pilot, co-pilot, navigator, flight meteorologist and weather reconnaissance loadmaster.
A US Air Force news story published on 10 October noted how the data the 53rd WRS provides to the NHC is vital, potentially saving lives and property. The story quoted 53rd WRS pilot Lieutenant Colonel Brad Boudreaux as saying that, while he flew a mission into Milton on 8 October, the hurricane re-intensified from a Category 4 to a Category 5, making his first pass through the hurricane’s eyewall a “rough ride”.
Explaining his mission, Lt Col Boudreaux said, “The key to everything we do here is to narrow the cone of uncertainty,” referring to the most probable track of a storm. “Our job is to provide weather information to the National Hurricane Center so that they can provide the best forecast so people can prepare.”
During a tropical storm or hurricane the 53rd WRS aircrews fly their WC-130Js through the eye of a storm at an altitude of around 10,000 ft (3,048 m) multiple times. During each pass crews release dropsondes, which collect temperature, wind speed, wind direction, humidity and barometric pressure data. The crews also collect surface wind speed and flight-level data. This information is transmitted to the NHC to assist forecasters with their storm warnings and hurricane forecast models in the Atlantic, Caribbean and eastern Pacific.
The 53rd WRS also works in conjunction with the Aircraft Operations Center of the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), which uses two types of aircraft for its missions: the WP-3D Orion and the Gulfstream GIV-SP. The NOAA uses the WP-3D similarly to how the 53rd WRS uses the WC-130J, while the Gulfstream flies as high as 45,000 ft to collect data in the upper atmosphere surrounding developing hurricanes. The information these missions gather is used both for track forecasting and research purposes.