Hurricane Hunters

Residents throughout Florida, the Gulf States, and the Atlantic seaboard are awaiting the arrival of June 1st, which will mark the official start of the 2025 Hurricane Season. Many seasonal, as well as full-time residents here in Florida have been busy working to implement their personal plans in preparation for the annual storm season, which runs from June 1st to November 30th each year.

Leaving nothing to chance, our First Responders here on the island and statewide have been busily updating their response plans and equipment readiness. The city has invested well over $15 million in two state-of-the-art facilities to house personnel in case of another direct hit from storms such as we’ve seen in the last few years. The latest station to be rebuilt was the new Central Fire Station and Emergency Ops Center at the corner of Bald Eagle and San Marco Road.

One group that is often overlooked is the NOAA Hurricane Hunters based at the Lakeland/Linder International Airport. They operate under the umbrella of the U.S. Department of Commerce and belong to the Aircraft Operations Center at the Lakeland Airport. It was here that we met with Paul Flaherty, who serves as a meteorologist, Flight Director, Field Project Manager, and Science Branch Chief for NOAA’s Aircraft Operations Center.

Their personnel are a complement of commissioned personnel from the NOAA Commissioned Corps, as well as federal employees and contractors under the Office of Marine and Aviation Operations. The operations were previously located at Hangar Five of MacDill AFB in Tampa, Florida, since 1993, after Hurricane Andrew destroyed their facility in Homestead, Florida. In 2017, they again relocated to their new facility in Lakeland.

Flaherty, a New England-born U.S. Air Force Veteran, isn’t shy to say he enjoys weather and the science that surrounds it. Prior to joining the NOAA team, he had taught meteorology in Biloxi, Mississippi, and later relocated to McDill in Tampa for his position with NOAA. 

We were fortunate when we toured the Lakeland facility that one of the Lockheed WP-3D Orion turboprops was present so we could view it, as its sister aircraft was out for maintenance. They presently have two of this style of aircraft assigned to them, but Flaherty was beaming with pride when he explained there were two new WC-130J Hercules aircraft from Lockheed Martin presently on order to replace the aging 3D Orion aircraft. 

This will allow them to carry larger scientific payloads and tolerate greater turbulence as they fly into these ever-larger storms. They also possess several other smaller aircraft that enable them to conduct additional scientific collections and observations of various weather anomalies. 

For the men and women that fly these missions it is all about the collection of important data to allow them to provide their counterparts with a better flow of data to make more accurate protections regarding the possible paths and strengths of the storms they may fly into this season or those they will encounter in the future.

The instrumentation found within these aircraft and the knowledge it provides the scientists are being forwarded to is capable of saving countless thousands of lives as these storms barrel towards populated areas along the coasts and even inland, as we most recently observed in the Carolinas. 

You can’t help but be amazed at the technology capable of being employed by the two Lockheed WP-3D Orion turboprops. From the underbelly down-shooting radar in conjunction with the rear Doppler Radar provides a better modeling of the structure of a storm. The ability to deploy a Global Positioning System with dropwindsondes that transmit measurements of temperature, humidity, wind direction, and speed while passing through the body of the storm after being jettisoned from the aircraft will once again help in determining the storm’s direction as well as monitoring its strength. 

In addition to those instruments, bathythermographs may also be deployed from the aircraft to monitor the water temperature, which gives scientists a better handle on the probability of storm strengthening over warmer waters.

Flaherty pointed out that the cooperation between agencies was the key to the successes they have enjoyed over the years while they have worked on various projects and provided support to other agencies. 

As far as forecasts go, Flaherty only laughed and said that was above his pay grade, but did say that the impact of things such as La Nina and El Nino were in a neutral position as both are showing little impact for the 2025 season, at least for now!