Hurricane Hunters wrap up active 2024 season

The 2024 Atlantic and Pacific hurricane seasons ended Nov. 30, marking the end of another active season for the 53rd Weather Reconnaissance Squadron at Keesler Air Force Base, Mississippi.

Better known as the Air Force Reserve Hurricane Hunters, the unit, which flies WC-130J Super Hercules aircraft to collect weather data for National Hurricane Center forecasts, flew 107 missions into 12 of the 18 named storms in the Atlantic and two of the 13 tropical cyclones in the Pacific.

"The 2024 hurricane season was an interesting roller coaster ride with very strong storms early and late in the season," said Lt. Col. Mark Withee, 53rd WRS navigator. "Beryl was a rare June Category 5 hurricane and Rafael, a Category 3, was a Gulf oddity for November. The takeaway for this season, is it's important to be prepared throughout hurricane season, and not just on the coast but inland as well as we saw Helene's impact to the Appalachians."

Hurricane seasons are each unique, added Lt. Col. Jeff Mitchell, 53rd WRS director of operations. "It is always busy for the 53rd, it is just a matter of where it is going to be busy. For instance, is it going to be busy in the Gulf or in the Atlantic?"

Through an interagency agreement, tropical weather reconnaissance is governed by the National Hurricane Operations Plan, which requires the squadron to support 24-hour-a-day continuous operations, with the ability to fly up to three storms simultaneously response times of 16 hours. The unit's operations area is immense spanning from the mid-Atlantic to Hawaii. To get closer to the storms the unit deploys aircraft and personnel to locations such as Henry E. Rohlsen Airport in St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands, or Barbers Point Kapolei Airport, Hawaii. This year, the unit deployed five times, one of which was a relocation of aircraft to Kelly Field, Texas, to get out of the path of Francine, which impacted Louisiana as a Category 2.

The 53rd works in conjunction with the NOAA's Aircraft Operations Center, which has a fleet of two WP-3D Orion, and one Gulfstream GIV-SP. NOAA uses the WP-3D similarly to how the 53rd WRS uses their fleet of 10 WC-130J aircraft while the Gulfstream flies as high as 45,000 feet to collect data in the upper atmosphere surrounding developing hurricanes. The information they gather is used for track forecasting and research purposes.

Of the 1,609 tropical cyclone reconnaissance hours flown this season by both organizations, the 53d flew 1,130.6 of those hours.

"This season was certainly unique," said Mitchell. "Starting off the bat with a Cat 5 was certainly an eye opener as well as seeing one of the strongest Atlantic hurricanes in October. One thing is for sure though; our job is very much needed, because as accurate as a season forecast is what it doesn't tell you is where it's going to be. Storm models are great at predicting the future path of storms once they form however, they remain reliant on one crucial element, the data from our aircraft."

The 53rd started the season flying Tropical Storm Alberto in June followed by Hurricane Beryl, the earliest Category 5 Atlantic hurricane on record, and Tropical Storm Chris, which formed the last of day of June made landfall in Veracruz in July.

According to the NOAA National Environmental Satellite, Data and Information Service, even though temperatures were warm in the North Atlantic, the equatorial Atlantic cooled rapidly into an Atlantic Nina which caused three weeks of inactivity until Hurricane Francine formed Sept. 9.

Activity dramatically increased in late September with strong storms such as Hurricane Helene, said Mitchell. Helene developed over the western Caribbean before moving toward the Big Ben region of Florida, making landfall Sept. 26 as a Category 4, and then made its way inland causing catastrophic damage over central Appalachia. The unit stayed busy the remainder of the season flying three storms in October, with Hurricane Milton being the strongest forming in the Gulf of Mexico and rapidly intensifying into the second Category 5 hurricane of the season before making landfall Oct. 9 as a Category 3, said Mitchell. The 53rd WRS' last storm mission of the season was Rafael, which made landfall in western Cuba as a Category 3 before it weakened into a remnant over the Gulf.

Although hurricane season is at an end, there is no off season for this group of reservists who are now preparing for their winter season operations support of atmospheric rivers and winter storm reconnaissance.