Published: April 4,2017
Imagine this: on a routine flight to your destination, instead of making a slow ascent to cruising altitude, you rise more than 900 feet and then plummet nearly 1,000 feet in less than 60 seconds.
This was the roller coaster ride a NOAA P-3 aircraft crew experienced in the midst of a "routine penetration into Hurricane Felix late on [Sept. 2] 2007," according to a new paper in the Monthly Weather Review.
The descent started as a fairly routine steady drop, but the bottom quickly fell out. The plane dropped from just over 10,100 feet to around 9,415 feet in less than 45 seconds, but the ride was about to get worse.
(MORE: 6 of the Most Harrowing Flights in Hurricane Hunter History)
Strong updrafts in the eyewall of Felix catapulted the plane upward more than 900 feet, and then a strong downdraft forced the NOAA Hurricane Hunters down more than 980 feet in just a minute. After a very brief level-off, the plane fell below 8,900 feet in the eye of Hurricane Felix.
Aircraft altitude during one of the inbound legs into Hurricane Felix. (NOAA/Hurricane Research Division)
Hurricane Felix was a small but potent Category 5 hurricane that barrelled through the Caribbean with sustained winds increasing to at least 175 mph. While it was in the Caribbean, the hurricane hunters flew a number of flights into Hurricane Felix to get better readings on the monster storm's strength.
At the time, Felix was rapidly intensifying in near perfect atmospheric and oceanic conditions. Maximum sustained winds increased from 105 mph to 175 mph in just 12 hours on Sept. 2, 2007.
Turbulence is often worst during periods of rapid intensification due to the immense amount of power hurricanes release during the process. Lightning, which is rare in hurricanes, and graupel, or soft hail, is often observed in rapidly intensifying hurricanes.
Estimates of rapidly intensifying or weakening tropical cyclones are more difficult than other tropical cyclones since their environment is typically extraordinarily volatile and many remote instruments have a difficult time making intensity estimates.
Lower-fuselage
radar reflectivity image from NOAA42 around 7:07 p.m. Sept. 2, 2007.
The aircraft (radar) is located at the center of the image.(NOAA/Hurricane Research Division)
These wild swings in strength can be deadly if they occur near land and can catch coastal communities off guard. These fluctuations are generally more difficult to forecast.
Hurricane hunters are often the best source of new information since they can usually get through the strongest part of hurricanes and have a direct eyeball on the storms.
This hurricane hunter mission had to be aborted due to "extreme turbulence and graupel" that pushed the plane beyond aircraft specifications for safety.
"The updraft marks the largest updraft a NOAA P3 has encountered during hurricane missions," according to Aberson, et al.
(MORE: 10 Hurricane Season Questions Answered)
Similar turbulence has occurred a couple other times in recent years. Hurricane Patricia in 2015 provided the NOAA Hurricane Hunters with an extremely nauseating ride that caused all aboard to experience a change from 3G (three times the force of gravity going upward) to -1.5G (one and a half times the force of gravity downward).
Felix went on to strike northern Nicaragua with a landfall speed of 160 mph, a rare Category 5 landfall. Felix killed at least 130 people in Nicaragua and Honduras as it moved inland.
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