Photo By Jessica Kendziorek | Thomas Birchard, senior forcaster and hurricane expert for the Central Pacific...... read more read more
Subscribe
JOINT BASE PEARL HARBOR-HICKAM, Hawaii -- As Hawaii recovers from the one-two punch from Hurricanes Iselle and Julio, the 53rd Weather Reconnaissance Squadron, an Air Force Reserve unit assigned to the 403rd Wing at Keesler Air Force Base, Mississippi, is packing up their operating base at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam.
The "Hurricane Hunters" arrived Aug. 5 and flew their last mission Sunday.
The squadron launched aircraft from the Island of Oahu during the threats of the storms and flew eight reconnaissance missions into Iselle and five into Julio.
Iselle, which at one point was a Category 4 hurricane, weakened into a tropical storm before it made landfall on the Big Island Friday, while Hurricane Julio spared the islands moving north of Hawaii Sunday afternoon.
The deployment to Hickam was due to threat of severe weather to the Hawaiian Islands and was considered a rare event since hurricanes typically don't make their trek intact all the way to the islands, said Maj. Jon Brady, 53rd WRS aerial reconnaissance weather officer.
Hawaii has been hit by three hurricanes since 1952, the last of which was Hurricane Iniki in 1992.
A hurricane-force storm hitting Hawaii is rare due to three factors; water too cold to sustain intensity, shear winds that threaten to topple a storm over and disorganize its wind-field flow, and a desert of dry air that chokes away its power, said Brady.
"I've been doing this 14 years, and this is the first time I've had two storms back-to-back on one deployment, where I hit one storm, go into crew rest, and the next day fly into another storm, said Maj. Sean Cross, 53rd WRS pilot. "And, they're both major hurricanes at some point."
Due to the rareness of a Hurricane hitting Hawaii and the uniqueness of a second hurricane trailing, the Central Pacific Hurricane Center was happy see the Hunters.
"The data they provided to us was vital," said Tom Birchard, the senior forecaster and hurricane specialist for CPHC. "It helped immensely. A lot of times we are taking educated guesses with the wind radii and wind field. Satellite data can only give us so much info; the data from the aircraft are ground truth."
That ground-truth data that the CPHC forecasters enjoy provides real-time assistance to emergency managers on the ground and helps them with weather watch and warning decisions.
"Seventy-five percent of our initial analysis is weighted based on the weather data gathered by the aircraft," said Birchard.
With Julio heading off to die in colder waters North of Hawaii, the Hunters head back to Biloxi, Mississippi, this week ready for the next storm, which is brewing in the Atlantic basin.
| Date Taken: | 08.11.2014 |
| Date Posted: | 01.09.2017 16:48 |
| Story ID: | 219713 |
| Location: | JOINT BASE PEARL HARBOR-HICKAM, HAWAII, US |
| Web Views: | 33 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, Hurricane Hunters wrap up deployment to Hawaii, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
No keywords found.
