How do hurricane hunter planes gather data from a storm?
Ft. Lauderdale, Florida – Hurricane hunter planes fly in and around the storms gathering important weather data, necessary to forecast its future course and strength. The National Hurricane Center uses two hurricane hunter fleets — one based in Biloxi, Mississippi, with the other here in Tampa at MacDill Air Force Base. The P3 is the plane based here in Tampa, and is affectionately called “Miss Piggy.” An enhanced avionics package helps pilots control the plane as they traverse the eye of strong hurricanes. It also has 2 radars, one that looks vertically and one that looks horizontally. One of the most important tools that the hurricane hunter uses are the dropsondes. The data from the dropsonde is transferred from the dropsonde to the plane, then to the National Hurricane Center. From there the data is disseminated to the public including the Forecast First Weather Center at 10 Connects. Once the meteorologists receive the data, they plot it on their weather computers. The data revea
