Historic hurricane season in the eyes of the Hurricane Hunters

AccuWeather

AccuWeather speaks with Commander Adam Abitol, a hurricane hunter of NOAA's Aircraft Operations Center. He shares how it's been a busy season for hurricane hunters in what has been a historic season.

Transcript

00:00This hurricane season has been deadly and historic in so many ways.

00:04In which ways has it been different or unique from your perspective?

00:11Well, I think this week is a prime example. This is AL-99 and the threat to Central America and

00:18eventually coming up into the Gulf this late in November is certainly unique. We've already

00:23flown Hurricane Raphael in November. So having the season extend this long into what is kind

00:30of a productive tropical season this year has been a lot. It's been a very long season,

00:36a lot of named storms obviously. The next one would be at S. So it's been a lot of work for

00:42a lot of the crew and a lot of folks supporting us throughout the National Weather Service.

00:47I get motion sickness on just a simple drive. So we want to know for you and your team

00:52of pilots, can you describe the flights into the center of an active hurricane

00:57where these speeds can be very, very violent? What is it like?

01:02Obviously, it's one of the most asked questions we get, right? And it's really hard to describe,

01:07but you certainly have quite a bit of turbulence. You're dealing with a lot of atmospheric dynamics.

01:13You have updrafts and downdrafts. You've got really strong horizontal wind components,

01:18as you know, in the hurricanes up to a couple 150, 160 miles per hour.

01:23So it can be a heck of a ride sometimes. Our entire team, so not only the pilots, but the

01:29flight engineers, meteorologists, navigators, and air crew in the back, we all work together to make

01:33sure that we can deliver not only the crew and aircraft safely, but get the data to the

01:38National Hurricane Center in Miami in a really timely manner to inform those forecasts.

01:43And I guess the next most asked question would be, how can a plane survive those conditions?

01:50I mean, you guys do it so frequently, and thankfully, we never hear of any tragedies.

01:58Yeah, I mean, we have an outstanding, well-trained crew that does this. It is a

02:03very tight-knit group. We understand the risks that are involved, and we kind of like to say

02:09around here, what we do isn't dangerous, it's just hazardous. And the difference being,

02:14we understand what the risks are, and we take a lot of steps to mitigate those risks.

02:19We have really tight procedures to make sure that the aircraft performs exactly where we need it to

02:23be. And we are well aware of the capabilities of not only the aircraft, but we're on top of

02:30the storm dynamics as well. We're monitoring it constantly. We fly with an onboard meteorologist

02:35for every flight. So we have all the best tools you could possibly have to do something like this,

02:40and the experience helps, and all the team helps quite a bit.

02:45I like that phrase. Not dangerous, just hazardous.

02:47Just hazardous, okay.

02:48We're going to use that. All right. Of course, hurricane season is continuing.

02:51How are you guys monitoring? What could become SARA in just a few hours, if not days?

02:57I actually have a call with the Hurricane Center here. As soon as I hang up with you guys,

03:01we're going to get together and talk about what the tasking needs might be for NOAA to go support

03:07AL-99, which could end up being SARA in the long run. So we do support a lot of our Caribbean

03:12partner nations, Central America as well. And we're going to try to find out what makes sense.

03:18Is there tasking requirements for our aircraft? Do we need to get in there and collect some of

03:22that data? The models have changed overnight, which is great, but there's still work to be

03:26done. November 30th is the official end of the season, so we're not off the clock yet.

03:31We appreciate you breaking down just what you do. Obviously, a fascinating job,

03:34and maybe you've inspired some people that this is now what they want to do.

03:37Commander Adam Abbott-Fall of Chief of NOAA's Aircraft Operations Center, again,

03:42we thank you for all the work you do and for joining us this morning on AccuWeather.

03:46My pleasure. Thanks for having me.

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