Storm chasers caught terrifying footage from inside the attention of Hurricane Lee on Friday (Sept. 8).
The footage of the hurricane reveals lightning crackling all through the storm as its jet-black eye looms ominously overhead. The video was shot by the U.S. Air Power Reserve’s 53rd Climate Reconnaissance Squadron in Biloxi, Mississippi, often known as the “Hurricane Hunters.” The video was revealed by the U.S. Division of Protection on Friday (music “Damaged Glass” by Logan Spaleta added by House.com).
Hurricane Lee is presently a Class 4 storm, that means it options sustained winds of 130 to 156 mph (209 to 251 kph). As of Friday, the storm is within the Atlantic Ocean east of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands and is anticipated to maneuver north over the subsequent a number of days. It isn’t but recognized if the storm can have any impacts on the U.S. Atlantic coast, in line with a assertion from the U.S. Nationwide Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Nationwide Hurricane Middle.
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The uncommon look immediately into the attention of a hurricane was made attainable by the Hurricane Hunters. Based on an Air Power truth sheet, the 53rd Climate Reconnaissance Squadron is the “solely operational unit on the planet flying climate reconnaissance on a routine foundation.”
To get these unbelievable views from the within of storms, the squadron flies specialised WC-130J Hercules plane. These are outfitted with specialised meteorological sensors together with dropsondes, devices which can be dropped immediately by storms as a way to create a top-to-bottom profile of wind, temperature and stress. The plane can keep within the air for practically 18 hours, permitting crews to gather climate information over prolonged durations.
Lee is the fourth hurricane and thirteenth named storm total of the 2023 Atlantic hurricane season. In late August 2023, Hurricane Idalia made landfall alongside america’ Gulf Coast, inflicting widespread injury all through Northern Florida and Georgia’s southwest. A minimum of seven fatalities have been attributed to the storm.
