Exclusive Look: HNN flies into the eye of Lowell with NOAA’s Hurricane Hunters

HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) – As Hurricane Lowell makes its way to the state, Hurricane Hunters from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) flew into the storm’s eye.

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Hawaii News Now had the exclusive opportunity to tag along with the U.S. Air Force Hurricane Hunters Thursday.

On Friday, HNN joined the NOAA crew to fly into the eye of Hurricane Lowell.

Flight director Joyce Hirai is preparing the crew to do just that, briefing the crew on Lowell’s conditions Friday morning.

The crew flew at an altitude of 10,000 feet with possible thunderstorms and light to moderate turbulence.

The crew took off from Kalaeloa Airfield on board a sturdy WP-3D Orion, also known as “Miss Piggy.” A name passed down from its predecessor that was a little worse for wear.

NOAA Hurricane Hunter Dan Tyson said it was leaking and dirty, so crews called it “the Pig,” which eventually led to Miss Piggy.

“They’re like, well, if we have Miss Piggy, then we should have a Kermit. So that’s what we got: Kermit and Miss Piggy, and then we reached out to Jim Henson, the creator of The Muppets. He loved the idea,” he said.

On approach to Lowell, the blue skies disappeared; in their place, a wall of gray. The eye wall, which the crew broke through.

The views were stunning but almost impossible to capture on video.

But knowing you’re inside a Category 4 hurricane, surrounded by one of the most powerful forces on Earth, is truly a mind-blowing experience.

We crossed the eye and punched through the other side, where Lowell was already showing signs of becoming a little less organized.

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Mitchell said getting the plane exactly where it needs to be takes an intricate dance between the pilots and navigator, constantly adjusting heading, altitude, and airspeed while the storm moves around them.

“It makes it harder to fly from a flight director perspective because you really are watching the wind,” Mitchell said. “We’ve got a small indication here, they’ve got a better indication in the back. And so she’s really just giving us headings based on where that wind is coming from to the aircraft, kind of keeping it essentially perpendicular to the plane, so you just kind of fly towards — you find the center.”

Every pass through Lowell had another purpose.

At strategic points ordered by the flight director, another member of the crew released drop songs, small instruments sent flailing through the hurricane, transmitting measurements of temperature, pressure, humidity, wind speed, and direction all the way to the ocean below.

“Rain rate information profiles when we’re in the storm,” the crew member said. “And so this was another opportunity to collect rare measurements in high wind, high rain conditions.”

After flying multiple times through the center of the storm, crew members returned to Hawaii.

The same blue water and sandy beaches looked a little different on the way home, because somewhere beyond that horizon is a hurricane.

And while satellites can watch it from hundreds of miles above, sometimes the best way to understand a storm is to fly straight into it.

“It’s really measuring the ocean, the atmosphere together that’s going to sort of help us understand the storm and hopefully get a better forecast as potential impacts here,” said NOAA P3 flight director Jonathan Zawislak.

For the scientists and crew aboard Miss Piggy, it’s another mission.

For the rest of us, the information they bring home could help communities stay safe.

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