Storm Hunters The Navy's Hurricane Reconnaissance Units
Posted by hanna on 10/8/2012, 1:56 pm
| Yes it is old but imho a good read. December 15, 2011 By David Reade  As U.S. Naval Aviation concludes its 100-year anniversary, there is one element of its history that has received little attention: the Navy's hurricane hunting mission to provide weather reconnaissance of Atlantic hurricanes and Pacific typhoons. In a way hurricane reconnaissance is the longest-running humanitarian effort in U.S. history. Between 1943 and 1975, U.S. Navy patrol and specialized weather reconnaissance squadrons flew hurricane and typhoon reconnaissance flights to locate, track, and provide storm information crucial for U.S. Weather Bureau-issued warnings and forecasts. In addition, Navy aircraft and personnel have also participated in scientific research vital to gaining a better understanding of one of nature's most awesome forces. At the beginning of World War II, the Weather Bureau's hurricane warning system was severely impacted by the lack of accurate weather reports due to wartime restrictions placed on the rapid transmission of weather data from ships, which were allowed to communicate only with ciphercoding because of the U-boat threat. The bureau in effect lost two-thirds of its prewar hurricane warning capabilities, which presented a considerable problem in forecasting storms. Aircraft could also provide weather data, but prior to 1943 aircraft flights into violent tropical storms, hurricanes, and typhoons were considered inconceivable. A number of early accidental or unofficial flights into hurricanes, however, demonstrated that flying into these storms was less hazardous than previously thought. These flights revealed the potential for dedicated weather reconnaissance. The Joint Hurricane Warning Center (JHWC) was established on 14 July 1943, when the Weather Bureau's Hurricane Warning Service office was transferred from Jacksonville, Fla., to Miami and located with the Army Air Force's Hurricane Office and the Navy's Miami-based Weather Central. Navy hurricane reconnaissance flights began during that same season. Several initial flights were flown into tropical storms in July and into August out of San Juan, Puerto Rico, by PBY Catalina and PBM Mariner flying boats from Fleet Air Wing (FAW) 11 under the direction of the JHWC. The first "authorized" flight into an Atlantic hurricane occurred in September when a Navy PBM-3 from San Juan penetrated an unnamed hurricane 250 miles from Puerto Rico. The aircraft skirted the inner-edge of the storm's eye wall for more than five hours at 550 feet.  For the rest of the story... http://navalaviationnews.navylive.dodlive.mil/2011/12/15/storm-hunters/ |
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