HURRICANE HUNTERS

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  • TD #4
    		• condensation trail Eye to Eye with Hurricane Daniel

    Hawaii bound! Hurricane Daniel survived the long trek from the west coast of Mexico all the way to Hawaii. We quickly moved a team of aircraft, crews, and maintenance to monitor this capricious storm for the Central Pacific Hurricane Center.

    As we headed from Mississippi across the southwest towards the Pacific, we saw this neat contrail (photo, right) from a jet high above. The jet is at the center of the picture, at the end of the thin white trail it is creating, and the contrail is casting a thin, dark shadow... the sun was in perfect alignment!

    Hurricane Daniel strengthened to a 125-mph storm as it approached Hawaii, but its strong winds and rain remained offshore as it gradually weakened and passed just to the north of the islands. We flew a total of six missions on this storm.

    Keep scrolling to see more pictures from this storm, the crew, and some nice Hawaii scenery, below.

    Mono Lake
      tropical storm Daniel
    There were plenty of interesting sights to see on our westward trek. We crossed Mono Lake as we approached the Sierras in California. Daniel (above) was downgraded to a tropical storm during our first foray. It remained a strong tropical storm through the few days we surveyed it, until it passed safely to the north of the Islands.
    As the aircraft entered the storm, all six crewmembers deftly handled their different duties, operating in an "office" that just wouldn't sit still! Warren, a reservist who is a television meteorologist in his civilian career, checked the data from a dropsonde. He also collected data every minute from sensors mounted on the aircraft, while advising the pilots about the straightest route into the center of the storm. Warren and his computer
    sea surface from a mile high The sea surface rolls and churns, whipped up by winds near 60 mph in Daniel. Some of the foam patches and streaks take on a greenish cast, as air bubbles become trapped under the surface of the water. The meteorologists on board the WC-130 made careful estimates of the surface winds based on the appearance of the sea, just one of many pieces of data sent to the Central Pacific Hurricane Center.
    rainbow on the Big Island Haleakala crater
    The beautiful Hawaiian Islands provided some gorgeous scenery enroute to Tropical Storm Daniel. We peered inside the 10,000 foot crater of Mt Haleakala ("House of the Sun") on Maui, which looked like a moonscape... in fact, Apollo astronauts once trained there.

    Go to TD #4 or 2000 Summary or Home Page