Have you ever wondered what it's like to fly directly into a hurricane?
- Free public tours available Friday afternoon
- Hurricane hunters fly into storms, gather data
- More than 90 missions, 800 hours during last year's season
You can meet the "hurricane hunter" pilots and flight crew and tour two of the hurricane hunter aircraft at Lakeland Linder Regional airport this Friday, May 11.
Free public tours will be available from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. If you can't attend, we will have news coverage of the event that afternoon.
NOAA's Gulfstream-IV aircraft, which flies ahead of and around a storm, and a U.S. Air Force Reserve WC-130J "Hurricane Hunter" aircraft, which flies directly through the storm, will be there.
The hurricane hunters play a huge role in how we get information about tropical storms and hurricanes.
Chief Meteorologist Mike Clay and Meteorologist Juli Marquez tour "Gonzo" when it was at the NOAA Aircraft Operations Center at MacDill Air Force Base in 2015.
Flying into a storm helps them gather data which is used in pinpointing the center of the storm, its intensity and its movement. The information is also used to help in the forecasts. The better the forecast, the better we can be prepared for a storm.
Last year, the hurricane hunters were busy!
According to Lt. Col. Kait Woods, 53rd WRS chief meteorologist, they flew more than 800 hours during more than 90 missions in the 2017 hurricane season.
The goal of this tour is to raise awareness about preparing for hurricane season. It begins June 1 and now is the time to get ready. We have information on our Storm Season 2018 page.
You can count on us at Spectrum Bay News 9 to bring you tropical updates every hour with our Weather on the Nines throughout hurricane season.
2018 NOAA Hurricane Awareness Tour
Friday, May 11, 2018
Lakeland Linder Regional Airport
3900 Don Emerson Dr., Lakeland, FL 33811
2:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. - Public tours of aircraft