The roaring thunder that echos throughout the sky during storms may scare some, but for storm chasers, curiosity only intensifies. In places such as Florida, where hurricanes and tropical storms are the ordinary, chasers dive into the chaos and work to help minimize the devastating impact that these storms can have.
Storm chasers, or chasers, are people who follow severe storms in order to conduct research, take photographs, or simply get a rush of adrenaline. Typically, these people chase tornadoes or hurricanes, and the data found is used to help scientists understand and predict future storms. In Florida particularly, the most common types of storm chasers are known as “hurricane hunters.” The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) includes a group of pilots and researchers who fly directly into America’s worst hurricanes, and by doing so, collect data that improve the accuracy of storm predictions.
The 2024 remake of the renowned movie “Twister” has once again brought storm chasing to the public eye; however, many people find themselves thinking of the violent, spinning tornadoes pictured in the movie when hearing about the phenomenon. Instead, hurricane hunters use aircraft in order to travel directly into the storm and assist scientists in meteorology research.
After flying straight into the eye of the state’s most recent storm, Hurricane Milton, Lt. Cmdr. Josh Rannenberg shared what he saw in an interview with ABC News. The NOAA hurricane hunter expressed that Milton was “...the craziest storm that [he’d] ever flown inside of…with the worst turbulence [he’d] ever seen, the most lightning, the deepest convection...” Hurricane hunting comes with a cost, and a variety of dangers. When these people decide to fly into the eye of a storm, they are in turn risking their lives.
The data collected during these missions are later sent to the National Hurricane Center (NHC) in Miami, Florida. There, according to the Rosenstiel School of Marine, Atmospheric, and Earth Science, “...meteorologists use the information to issue forecasts that help emergency managers prepare for storm impacts.” The information collected is crucial. It dictates evacuation protocols and shutdowns of businesses and residences, potentially saving lives. The contributions made by those who have managed to find their passion in the whirlpool of chaos and cloudy skies do not go unnoticed. As they fly into the hearts of the most threatening storms, hurricane hunters continue to help local communities and gather crucial data that ultimately can save the lives of hundreds.
The courage of storm chasers is vital to the safety of areas targeted by severe weather. The shared curiosity of NOAA hurricane hunters is used to further scientific research and reduce the damage of future storms; and as people across the world recover from the impacts of recent hurricanes, hurricane hunters continue to work to help reconstruct areas devastated by these storms.
