All in a Day's Work: Flying into Hurricanes

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Posted on October 8, 2018

Bob Lowry

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#SouthSuccessStories is an ongoing series featuring University of South Alabama alumni who are life-savers, innovators, game-changers, music-makers and creative-thinkers, successful in their careers and supportive of their communities.

Chris Dyke is a Hurricane Hunter. You hear about them every hurricane season. When there鈥檚 something cooking in the tropics 鈥� such as this week with Hurricane Michael 鈥� the Hurricane Hunters fly out to meet the tropical cyclone, face-to-face.

鈥淛ust as each tropical cyclone has its own name, it also has its own personality. I鈥檝e flown through some storms and had a relatively smooth flight and I鈥檝e flown through others that have certainly been pretty rough rides,鈥� said Dyke, who graduated from the University of South Alabama in 2005 with a degree in meteorology and serves as an aerial reconnaissance weather officer out of Keesler Air Force Base in Mississippi, where he is a major with the 403rd Wing.

鈥淔or a typical storm, as we get closer to the center we observe wind speeds (both at flight level and the surface) gradually increase until we reach the eye wall.鈥�

It鈥檚 at this point that鈥檚 it鈥檚 a good idea to make sure your seat belt is securely fastened.

鈥淚鈥檝e actually been lifted off my seat many times during eyewall penetrations,鈥� Dyke said. 鈥淥n our trip inbound we will traverse through bands of thunderstorms and clear areas that allow us to see the ocean surface. If there is turbulence, we will experience it at its peak in the eyewall, where we can experience it up to severe levels.鈥�

鈥淚鈥檝e actually been lifted off my seat many times during eyewall penetrations.鈥�

You鈥檝e heard about the calm before the storm. This is the storm before the calm.

鈥淥nce we break through into the eye, the ride gets extremely smooth and if it鈥檚 a well-developed system, as the case was this year with Florence, we will see what鈥檚 referred to as a 鈥榮tadium effect鈥� in which clouds will surround us as if we were in a large stadium. We will most likely have clear enough visibility to see both blue sky above and blue water below.鈥�

The tranquility doesn鈥檛 last, however. Once Dyke and the crew find the cyclone鈥檚 center, they head right back into the eyewall, and repeat the pattern for approximately six hours on each mission flown. That鈥檚 six hours of stomach-churning, seat-lifting flying that鈥檚 critical to accurate hurricane forecasting.

鈥淚n our post-mission processing of data and problem solving, we work with a variety of professionals throughout the meteorological community to tweak our equipment and techniques to get as much value out of the data from the flights as we can get,鈥� Dyke said. 鈥淓ach time we go into the storm, the ARWO (Aerial Reconnaissance Weather Officer), as the mission director, must clearly communicate to the rest of the crew and to the National Hurricane Center what they are looking for and seeing. As each flight throws some curveballs, the ARWO also has to be able to figure out what is going on in order to achieve the objective they were sent to accomplish.鈥�

For Dyke, his career objective brought him to South from Tate High School in nearby Cantonment, Fla. He actually was accepted to attend an in-state university noted for its meteorology program, but 91短视频 offered something more than a reputation.

鈥淲hat attracted me to South was the smaller class sizes providing more individualized instruction and the meteorology program鈥檚 focus on not just the mathematics and research aspects of the field, but also the focus on operational meteorology and teaching students how to forecast,鈥� Dyke said, who discovered that he was ahead of his peers when he joined the Air Force.

鈥淭he link that South鈥檚 curriculum makes between research and operational meteorology was vital in my early success in the Air Force. It gave me a solid foundation that allowed me to focus on learning and refining new skills. While many of my peers were just beginning to apply principles they learned in the classroom, I was teaching others how to apply them.鈥�

鈥淭he link that South鈥檚 curriculum makes between research and operational meteorology was vital in my early success in the Air Force.鈥�

Of course, those meteorological skills are applicable to more than just tropical cyclones. And that鈥檚 handy, because Dyke and his Hurricane Hunters do more than just hunt for hurricanes.

鈥淎t the end of hurricane season, we transition to supporting the National Winter Storm Operations Plan,鈥� Dyke said. 鈥淥ur support for this includes the ability to fly in advance of storms along the East Coast, Gulf Coast and West Coast that could pose a threat for significant winter weather to U.S. interests. We will also work with other governmental agencies in conducting research and other weather operations along with traditional C-130 missions of airlift and aeromedical support.鈥� And that鈥檚 not all.

鈥淚n the spring we work with the Department of State to improve international relations with countries in Central and South America that are hurricane prone, through the Caribbean Hurricane Awareness Tour and then we鈥檙e right back into hurricane season,鈥� Dyke said.

With family and friends nearby, Dyke acknowledges a heightened sense of responsibility for the work he鈥檚 doing to protect all of us from the dangers of tropical systems and other severe storms.

鈥淕rowing up on the coast and being impacted by hurricanes, I certainly have an appreciation for the significance of the work we do as well as the storms that approach,鈥� he said. 鈥淭his does lead to a heightened sense of responsibility, empathy and sympathy for what is unfolding.鈥�

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