Chances are you have heard of the Hurricane Hunters at some point. Those of us that are meteorologists often wait for data from Hurricane Hunters concerning tropical storm/hurricane development. Who are the Hurricane Hunters and what is it they exactly do? Well, I am going to explain more.

The Hurricane Hunters have been around since 1943. In 1943 they were formed after a dare. In 1943 a hurricane was about to make landfall in Galveston Texas. British air force officers were given training at US air force bases. As it became clear a hurricane was about to move in. The US Air Force started to evacuate their aircraft. This baffled the British as they asked the Colonel over the base if American Aircraft could not handle strong winds. The British were questioning the strength of some of the aircraft. Keep in Mind the British except those that were in the British Territories in the Caribbean had not had any run ins with hurricanes.

The Lt Colonel in charge of the base made a bet that the American Aircraft could fly in and out of a hurricane. The British officers dared him to do just that. He took the British officers and his staff in an air plane. He successfully flew in and out of the hurricane's center. While this was proving a bet/dare. It also was a milestone in Meteorology. The aircraft was able to measure winds and pressure in the hurricane.

The US Air force started searching for developing tropical systems to fly into. They would also gather data on known tropical systems. A special unit of the Air Force known as the 53rd Weather Squadron was specifically assigned to fly into these storms. In 1946 they were officially named Hurricane Hunters.

The Hurricane Hunters planes were upgraded so they could stand the dangerous winds in a hurricane. Until weather satellites came out in 1960, which could detect developing tropical systems. The Hurricane Hunters would fly long hours across the Atlantic Basin trying to find developing storms. Before the Hurricane Hunters were formed tropical systems were only known if ships reported them or if they impacted land.

However, tragedy struck in late September 1955. An entire Hurricane Hunter crew perished. They were flying into Hurricane Janet when Janet's strong winds brought down the aircraft. It was later revealed that Janet was a 175 mph category 5 hurricane. After this tragedy engineers redesigned the planes to handle category 5 winds. This has been one of the few times when a Hurricane Hunter aircraft crew perished due to a hurricane.

Since 1960 weather satellites have become advanced that they can detect tropical systems in the Far Atlantic. This now saves the Hurricane Hunters long flight hours. However, the Hurricane Hunters are still important. As they still fly into known or developing tropical systems to get accurate pressure and wind readings. The planes are now equipped with high tech computers and sensors.

In addition, the Hurricane Hunters are now tied into the National Hurricane Center. Although they are technically still a part of the US Air Force. The Hurricane Hunters also have several bases.

After the success of the US version of the Hurricane Hunters. Other advanced nations also have their own versions. Mainly Australia and Japan were Hurricanes known in the West Pacific as Typhoons and known in the Indian/South Pacific as Cyclones are common.

Anyway, this is the history of this important organization. For those of us in meteorology we often wait on the advisories from the Hurricane Center. These advisories come out every 3-6 hours. A lot of times Hurricane Hunters have flown into these storms. The only exception might be if a storm is in the far Atlantic and not threatening any land. The Hurricane Center will use satellite data which is very accurate. To think this organization was started on a dare and a bet.