Flying Straight Into Hurricanes: U.S. Weather Corps Hunts Storms
- Little-known NOAA unit takes to skies and sea for storm info
- Perfect job for a pilot and self-described ‘weather geek’
For Lieutenant Commander John Rossi, flying into the winds of a hurricane is like “wrestling an 800-pound gorilla.”
Rossi is a pilot with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Commissioned Officer Corps, a little known quasi-military branch of the agency that helps gather information on weather events like Hurricane Dorian. He has been piloting one of the agency’s two four-engine Lockheed WP-3D Orion aircraft -- nicknamed Kermit and Miss Piggy -- into all kinds of storms since 2017, including Hurricanes Harvey, Maria and last year’s Michael, the third most intense storm to hit the contiguous U.S.