Hurricane Felix so bad, Hurricane Hunters had to abort and fly out

Hurricane Felix so bad, Hurricane Hunters had to abort and fly out

www.weatherunderground.com

....An eye sonde measured a surface pressure of 936 mb
with surface winds of 24 kt. Because of the extreme turbulence and groupel that the aircraft experienced...the mission is being
aborted and the aircraft is returning to St. Croix.

This special advisory is being issued to update the initial and
forecast intensities. No other changes to the forecast are being
made. This special advisory is being issued in lieu of the
scheduled intermediate advisory.

(visit the link for the full news article)

After reading this, how many of you want to make a bet, that this hurricane will be one for the record books? I wonder if this Hurricane could become bigger than a Cat 5??

www.weatherunderground.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

The reason they aborted the mission was because there were big chunks of ice in the clouds and it was banging the plane and its windshield.

also severe turbulance was a factor. But yes not much can be read into this as flights have been aborted in the past for one reason or another.

I thought I would post this bit of info from this link: www.weatherunderground.com...

They go into better detail about what happened yesterday...Hmm...I think it wasn't your normal Hurricane Hunter flight...

Here is the info:

"Hurricane Hunters walloped by Felix
NOAA Hurricane Hunter aircraft N42RF experienced a truly awesome and terrifying mission into the heart of Hurricane Felix last night. Flying at 10,000 feet through Felix at 7pm EDT, N42RF dropped a sonde into the southeast eyewall. The swirling winds of the storm were so powerful that the sonde spun a full 3/4 circle around the eye before splashing into the northwest eyewall. It is VERY rare for a sonde to make nearly a complete circle around the eye like this. As the plane entered the eye of the now Category 5 hurricane, they found a 17-mile wide stadium lit up by intense lightning on all sides. The pressure at the bottom of the eye had hit 934 mb, and the temperature outside, a balmy 77 degrees at 10,000 feet. This is about 24 degrees warmer than the atmosphere normally is at that altitude, and a phenomenally warm eye for a hurricane. N42RF then punched into the northwest eyewall. Flight level winds hit 175 mph, and small hail lashed the airplane as lighting continued to flash. Then, the crew hit what Hurricane Hunters fear most--a powerful updraft followed a few seconds later by an equally powerful downdraft. The resulting extreme turbulence and wind shear likely made the aircraft impossible to control. Four G's of acceleration battered the airplane, pushing the aircraft close to its design limit of 6 G's. Although no one was injured and no obvious damage to the airplane occurred, the aircraft commander wisely aborted the mission and N42RF returned safely to St. Croix. N42RF is the same aircraft that survived a pounding of 5.6 g's in the eyewall of Hurricane Hugo in 1989. A special inspection of the aircraft is planned for today to determine if it is fit to fly further missions into Felix, and its scheduled afternoon flight into the hurricane was canceled. Hurricane Hunter missions since have fared better, and no more extreme turbulence has been reported."

Oh By the way, it is now official, Hurricane Felix is now one for the record books...
As quoted from this link: www.weatherunderground.com...


"Hurricane Felix put on an incredibly ferocious burst of intensification last night, winding up into a small but potentially catastrophic Category 5 hurricane. Felix now holds the record for shortest time for an Atlantic storm to intensify to Category 5 strength. Felix required just 51 hours to reach Category 5 strength after it started as a tropical depression. That is a truly remarkable intensification rate, considering most tropical cyclones take 3-5 days to organize into a Category 1 hurricane. The tracking coordinates for Felix show that it has spent more of its life at Category 5 strength than any other classification."

In an effort to keep all pertinent information and updates on Hurricane Felix in one place, I am closing this thread.

Please post in the original thread:
www.abovetopsecret.com...

Closed.