Busy hurricane season ends, quiet for US mainland

Photo By Tech. Sgt. Nicholas Monteleone | Members of the 403rd Aerial Port Squadron prepare cargo to be flown back to Keesler AFB during the "Roll Out" in St. Croix, Virgin Islands Dec. 9. The "Hurricane Hunters" stage weather reconnaissance operations out of St. Croix during the hurricane season for storms in the Atlantic. (U.S. Air Force photo by Senior Airman Nicholas Monteleone)  

KEESLER AIR FORCE BASE, MS, UNITED STATES

12.17.2014

Story by Staff Sgt. Nicholas Monteleone 

403rd Wing

KEESLER AIR FORCE BASE, MISS. -- With the 2014 hurricane season ending with the month of November, members of the 53rd Weather Reconnaissance Squadron traveled to their forward operating location at the Henry E. Rohlsen Airport in St. Croix, Virgin Islands to close up their facility and officially end tropical storm reconnaissance operations for the year.

403rd Wing reservists worked Monday through Sunday conducting the "Roll Up" of equipment from spare parts to test equipment kept at the facility during the season. The equipment was brought out in May for the "Roll Out" in preparation for the season, allowing for 53rd WRS crews to quickly respond to storms in the Atlantic Ocean.

This 2014 season was quiet for the US, said Lt. Col. Jon Talbot, 53rd WRS chief meteorologist and Roll Up mission commander, but was pretty busy for other areas.

"Our typical flying hours that we do in a season is 1200-1600," said Talbot, "we flew nearly 1000 hours."

The only storm to reach the mainland US, was along the East Coast in July, but Burmuda was hit twice in one week. The 53rd WRS conducted two 10-day deployments covering three storms to hit Hawaii, including a direct hit to the main island, which is the first time that has happened since the early 90s said Talbot.

Hurricane Odile was a Category 3 hurricane when it struck the Baja Peninsula causing massive amounts of damage to Cabo San Lucas.

"So, when you add it all up we were still pretty busy this summer, it's just that the lower 48 states didn't get impacted much," he said.

Efficiency of St. Croix

Staging out of St. Croix allows for crews to spend more time in storms crossing the Atlantic and less time traveling there.

When a storm reaches roughly halfway across the Atlantic, we begin flying into them to provide better forecasting data for American interests in the path, said Talbot. He said typically as the storm moves further towards the mainland, they move operations back to Keesler.

However, they are capable of flying out of wherever makes operational sense.

"The first flight we did this summer out to the Hawaiian Islands, we flew out of California into the storm and then landed at Hickam (Air Force Base, HI) to stage out of there for the remainder of the storm," said Talbot.

During a storm mission, a 53rd WRS crew can fly through the eye of a storm four to six times. When passing through the eye, they release dropsondes at multiple points, which collect information on temperature, wind speed and direction, humidity, and surface pressure data. This information is sent to the NHC to aid in their forecast models and storm warnings.

Cost savings to taxpayers

The data provided by these missions is so valuable that the savings to the country and municipalities is enough to fund these operations.

It costs the government $193 million dollars to prepare for a storm, said Talbot. He said when it's three days out and we have a very wide cone forecasted, it's best to evacuate as small of an area as is necessary.

"The aircraft data provides about a 15% improvement to the forecast and they can shave off 25-50 miles on either side of that cone," he said. Talbot said it costs from $200,000 to $1 million per mile to evacuate depending on its size. "That cost includes shutting businesses down, getting people out, and getting emergency management systems up and running," said the meteorologist. This results in a savings of $20 million per hurricane that makes landfall on average saving enough to fund the unit's operations, he said.

Hurricane season may have ended, but the possibility of severe weather is always on the horizon. The 53rd WRS moves on to perform its winter storm mission for the National Weather Service. Crews fly winter storm tracks along the East and West Coasts and the Gulf of Mexico to gather data to assist the NWS with their computer models for their five and six day forecasts.

• Date Taken: 12.17.2014
• Date Posted: 01.07.2017 16:31
• Story ID: 219502
• Location: KEESLER AIR FORCE BASE, MS, US