North Dakota native works as hurricane hunter to collect valuable data on hurricanes, other strong storms

BISMARCK, N.D. (KFYR) – We’ve seen and heard in regards to the destruction left in Hurricane Ian’s wake. 1000’s of Florida residents had been evacuated earlier than the highly effective storm hit, whereas one North Dakota native and some different very courageous people flew instantly into the attention of Ian.

Most pilots do their greatest to keep away from storms, however for this squadron in Mississippi, flying into the storm is simply one other day on the job.

The 53rd Climate Reconnaissance Squadron, a part of the 403rd Wing at Keesler Air Pressure Base in Mississippi, is the one unit flying climate reconnaissance missions in America.

One of many members, Grasp Sargent Chris Becvar, from Fessenden, ND, has been flying into hurricanes for years.

“If there’s a menace to the US shoreline, Central America shoreline, or Caribbean Islands, we’ll go on the market and fly by it and gather knowledge and report that knowledge again to the Nationwide Hurricane Middle,” mentioned Becvar.

The aim of this Squadron is to retrieve knowledge from extreme climate storms. That knowledge is used not just for studying extra about every storm that hits however can be essential for saving the lives of people who may very well be impacted.

“With that info, our pc fashions can have probably the most up-to-date info and assist us to foretell the depth of the hurricane and the place the hurricane goes to go,” mentioned Meteorologist Jacob Morse.

Though they generally go by the “Hurricane Hunters,” this squadron does a lot greater than that. In January 2021, they went to the west coast to assist retrieve knowledge for the Nationwide Facilities for Environmental Prediction pertaining to the impacts of atmospheric rivers touring east from the Pacific Ocean.

“In the course of the low season, hurricane hunters additionally research atmospheric river occasions, or massive storms on the west coast, and winter storms throughout the nation. This knowledge may also assist meteorologists to raised predict these storms and assist us with the forecasting features,” mentioned Morse.

The 53rd Climate Reconnaissance Squadron works exhausting all yr spherical to offer us with lifesaving knowledge pertaining to present, upcoming, and previous storms and climate threats.

“Their rainfall, their mudslides, landslides, wildfire, all these, every part that we do goes straight into these fashions,” mentioned Becvar.

Though North Dakota residents don’t have to fret about hurricanes, our meteorologists get necessary info from the hurricane hunters about our intense and generally harmful winter storms. With out them, we wouldn’t be as in a position to predict the depth and path of winter storms.

At present, a brand new tropical storm threatens to develop and probably trigger a disturbance within the Gulf of Mexico from Wednesday to Friday. Hurricane Hunters put together to fly into the storm to research.

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