NORFOLK, Va. - In the world of aviation, most pilots try to stay as far away from storms as possible. But not the NOAA Hurricane Hunters. They fly their planes into some of the most powerful storms on Earth."
"It's kind of like if your office was on a wooden roller coaster inside of an automatic car wash," said Nick Underwood, describing what it feels like to fly into the eyewall of a hurricane.
Such is the work life of a Hurricane Hunter. This elite teem of pilots and meteorologists fly into the eye of hurricanes to collect data to help hurricane forecasters and emergency management agencies.
"We'll drop these from the bottom of the aircraft," Underwood said as he described a dropsonde. "They have a parachute that deploys, and as they're floating down, they're collecting temperature, pressure, humidity, wind speed, and wind direction data."
Underwood in an aerospace engineer with the Hurricane Hunters.
The Hurricane Hunters are always testing new technology that will let them get even closer to the action in the middle of a hurricane.
"The last few years we've been launching drones out of the aircraft that can fly down to a lot lower altitudes than even our aircraft can even get to to really collect what we call that boundary layer data where the air and the sea are mixing," Underwood explained.
Meteorologist Michael Berg with the National Hurricane Center said the data the Hurricane Hunters collect is invaluable for forecasters and emergency management planners.
"We get very good information from satellites," Berg said. "We have a sense for where the storm is located, how strong it is, but when that plane gets in there, they're giving us information right in the center of the storm. And nothing beats that when we're trying to make the best forecast possible."
The first folks to encounter any of the dangers of the storm, are the pilots in the cockpit, which they call their "front office."
"[In any] other aviation if you get from point A to point B, it just doesn't get as exciting or thrilling, not to mention not as rewarding as being able to go contribute directly to something that's so impactful to millions of people," said Commander Adam Abitbol, a Hurricane Hunter pilot.
In addition to the thrills and excitement, there are the occasional spells of airsickness. Underwood recalls one of his less proud moments.
"On my first flight, I certainly did [get seasick], into Hurricane Matthew in 2016," Underwood recounted. "I was good for about three hours and then spent the next five, uh, unwell."
Do they ever feel like giving up on such a demanding career?
"[I've] been doing it for eight years, and plan on doing it for many years to come," Underwood said.