Hurricane Hunters Brace for a Summer of Flying Into the Eye of the Storm

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In a post-Beryl lull at Central Florida HQ, pilots and standby crews prepare for the next โ€˜roller coaster through a washing machineโ€™ mission.

LAKELAND, Fla.โ€”They didnโ€™t need to chase this storm, hunt this hurricane, it was already thereโ€”bigger and badder than anything seen before at this time of year, this far out in the Atlantic.

Cmdr. Brett Copare knew he was flying into history on June 30 as he steered the P-3 Orion โ€œKermitโ€ nose-first into a churning wall of towering thunderheads ringing a 450-mile maelstrom that was but a radar flyspeck 48 hours earlier.

โ€œBefore we got out there, it was already a Cat 4,โ€ he said, recalling being โ€œawe-struckโ€ and thinking, โ€œA storm this big, this fast โ€ฆ this is unique.โ€

That flight of unwelcome discovery was one of dozens made by National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) aircrews in tracking the Atlanticโ€™s first-ever June category 4 and 5 hurricane as Beryl launched its 6,000-mile, two-week romp from Cabo Verde to Vermont.

On his third day of standby July 11 at NOAAโ€™s Aircraft Operations Center (AOC) at Lakeland Linder International Airport in central Florida, Cmdr. Copare pondered lessons learnedโ€”and questions raisedโ€”by a storm that โ€œhappened so fast,โ€ and was unlike any of the 25 hurricanes heโ€™s flown through.

โ€œTypically, when storms form, we see them when they are at their lowest status, a low-pressure disturbance, and monitor as they gear up,โ€ he said. โ€œThis was the reverse of what we normally observe.โ€

On this haze-gray day, technicians calibrate instruments inside two Lockheed WP-3D Orionsโ€”modified U.S. Navy submarine chasersโ€”parked on the tarmac under a gauzy sun.

Inside the AOCโ€™s hangars, mechanics tend to a Gulfstream G-4 and De Havilland Twin Otter while in offices above, meteorologists and scientists ferret through data from stormsโ€™ past and monitor National Hurricane Center radar for storms to come.

All are set to go at a momentโ€™s notice. And after Berylโ€™s rapid intensification, all are aware that notice could come any moment.

โ€œCurrently, thereโ€™s nothing out there,โ€ NOAA meteorologist and flight director Sofia de Solo said. The lull comes after she flew three G-4 Beryl missions in 10 days.

Byย John Haughey

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