AccuWeather speaks with Commander Adam Abitol, a hurricane hunter of NOAA's Aircraft Operations Center. He shares how it's been a busy season for hurricane hunters in what has been a historic season.
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00:00This hurricane season has been deadly and historic in so many ways.
00:04In which ways has it been different or unique from your perspective?
00:11Well, I think this week is a prime example. This is AL-99 and the threat to Central America and
00:18eventually coming up into the Gulf this late in November is certainly unique. We've already
00:23flown Hurricane Raphael in November. So having the season extend this long into what is kind
00:30of a productive tropical season this year has been a lot. It's been a very long season,
00:36a lot of named storms obviously. The next one would be at S. So it's been a lot of work for
00:42a lot of the crew and a lot of folks supporting us throughout the National Weather Service.
00:47I get motion sickness on just a simple drive. So we want to know for you and your team
00:52of pilots, can you describe the flights into the center of an active hurricane
00:57where these speeds can be very, very violent? What is it like?
01:02Obviously, it's one of the most asked questions we get, right? And it's really hard to describe,
01:07but you certainly have quite a bit of turbulence. You're dealing with a lot of atmospheric dynamics.
01:13You have updrafts and downdrafts. You've got really strong horizontal wind components,
01:18as you know, in the hurricanes up to a couple 150, 160 miles per hour.
01:23So it can be a heck of a ride sometimes. Our entire team, so not only the pilots, but the
01:29flight engineers, meteorologists, navigators, and air crew in the back, we all work together to make
01:33sure that we can deliver not only the crew and aircraft safely, but get the data to the
01:38National Hurricane Center in Miami in a really timely manner to inform those forecasts.
01:43And I guess the next most asked question would be, how can a plane survive those conditions?
01:50I mean, you guys do it so frequently, and thankfully, we never hear of any tragedies.
01:58Yeah, I mean, we have an outstanding, well-trained crew that does this. It is a
02:03very tight-knit group. We understand the risks that are involved, and we kind of like to say
02:09around here, what we do isn't dangerous, it's just hazardous. And the difference being,
02:14we understand what the risks are, and we take a lot of steps to mitigate those risks.
02:19We have really tight procedures to make sure that the aircraft performs exactly where we need it to
02:23be. And we are well aware of the capabilities of not only the aircraft, but we're on top of
02:30the storm dynamics as well. We're monitoring it constantly. We fly with an onboard meteorologist
02:35for every flight. So we have all the best tools you could possibly have to do something like this,
02:40and the experience helps, and all the team helps quite a bit.
02:45I like that phrase. Not dangerous, just hazardous.
02:47Just hazardous, okay.
02:48We're going to use that. All right. Of course, hurricane season is continuing.
02:51How are you guys monitoring? What could become SARA in just a few hours, if not days?
02:57I actually have a call with the Hurricane Center here. As soon as I hang up with you guys,
03:01we're going to get together and talk about what the tasking needs might be for NOAA to go support
03:07AL-99, which could end up being SARA in the long run. So we do support a lot of our Caribbean
03:12partner nations, Central America as well. And we're going to try to find out what makes sense.
03:18Is there tasking requirements for our aircraft? Do we need to get in there and collect some of
03:22that data? The models have changed overnight, which is great, but there's still work to be
03:26done. November 30th is the official end of the season, so we're not off the clock yet.
03:31We appreciate you breaking down just what you do. Obviously, a fascinating job,
03:34and maybe you've inspired some people that this is now what they want to do.
03:37Commander Adam Abbott-Fall of Chief of NOAA's Aircraft Operations Center, again,
03:42we thank you for all the work you do and for joining us this morning on AccuWeather.
03:46My pleasure. Thanks for having me.