When USAF Chased Storms From Bermuda

It’s a storm-chasing  US Air Force squadron which flies missions directly into hurricanes and other weather systems for research purposes – as recently as last year providing Bermuda with crucial meteorogical data as Igor was bearing down on the island.

The radar image of Hurricane Igor’s eyewall  at left was taken onboard one of the Weather Reconnaissance Squadron’s modified Hercules transport aircraft on September, 17, 2010 –  two days before the storm lashed Bermuda. Known as the “Hurricane Hunters,” the WRS’ mission is to provide surveillance of tropical storms and hurricanes in the Atlantic Ocean, the Caribbean Sea, the Gulf of Mexico and the central Pacific Ocean for the National Hurricane Centre in Miami.

But not only does the Weather Reconnaissance Squadron provide  Bermuda with invaluable storm-related information  – twice in its history the squadron made Bermuda its home base.

It all started in 1943 as a bar room dare, when two US Army Air Corps pilots challenged each other to fly through a hurricane. On July 27, 1943, Major Joe Duckworth flew a propeller-driven, single-engine North American AT-6 Texan trainer into the eye of a hurricane. Major Duckworth flew into the eye of that storm twice that day, once with a navigator and again with a weather officer.

These were generally considered to be the first airborne attempts to obtain data for use in plotting the position of a tropical cyclone as it approached land. Major Duckworth’s pioneering efforts demonstrated hurricane reconnaissance flights were feasible, and further flights continued on an irregular basis paved the way for further flights into tropical cyclones.

The “Hurricane Hunters” – as they almost immediately became known – were originally activated in 1944, at Gander, Newfoundland. Their original mission was to fly weather tracks between North America and Allied Western Europe. Since that time, the US Air Force’s Weather Reconnaissance Squadron  have had many designations and called many airfields home.

From Gander, the squadron moved south to New Hampshire and then on to Florida. In late 1947, the Hurricane Hunters moved across the Atlantic and were stationed at Kindley Field, Bermuda before relocating to Burtonwood Royal Air Force Station, England, and Dharan, Saudi Arabia.

While in Bermuda the the squadron suffered its only mission-related loss of an aircraft, a B-29 bomber. Returning to Kindley Field with a runaway propeller on one engine, the propeller separated from the engine and struck the engine beside it, setting fire to both the engine and wing.

The pilot ordered an immediate bailout, but only nine of the 15-man crew escaped the aircraft before it crashed. They were rescued from the sea by two ships.

The squadron returned to Bermuda again for a period in the early 196os when the Hurricane Hunters flew some of their most perilous missions. In 1961 the aircraft flew out of Bermuda to probe both Hurricane Carla — a Category 5 storm which was the most powerful tropical cyclone to strike Texas until that point — and Hurricane Esther, a Category 4 storm which mauled the East Coast just a week later.

Their exploits while they were stationed in Bermuda were captured in this newsreel.

From Bermuda, the Hurricane Hunters went back to the United States, stationed at Hunter Air Force Base in Georgia. Ga. In 1966, the 53rd WRS once again left the United States, this time for Ramey AFB, Puerto Rico. When Ramey closed in 1973, the Hurricane Hunters came to their present locations at Keesler Air Force Base in Mississippi,

Briefly deactivated for budgetary reasons in 1991, the 53rd WRS was reactivated just two years later.  Although satellite data has revolutionised weather forecasting, there are still many important tasks this data is not suitable for. Satellites cannot determine the interior barometric pressure of a hurricane, nor provide accurate wind speed information. These data are needed to accurately predict hurricane development and movement and can best be provided by  weather reconnaissance aircraft.

Despite heavy damage to their home station caused by Hurricane Katrina in 2005, the unit continued its weather reconnaissance mission without missing a single tasking.

#AmericanRelations #BermudaHistory #MilitaryAndRegiment #Weather

Category: All, Environment, History