While Florida officials are urging those in Hurricane Milton’s path to evacuate or face grim odds of survival, The Associated Press reported, an Air Force Reserve unit known as the 53rd Weather Reconnaissance Squadron ascended into the eye of the storm Wednesday.
It was piloted by Capt. Nate Wordal, in a mission to gather weather data for the National Hurricane Center.
See the flight below.
Wordal joined WTOP’s Anne Kramer and Shawn Anderson to talk about the flight.
Listen to the full interview below or read the transcript. The transcript has been lightly edited for clarity.
Anne Kramer: Tell us what it was like. We understand that you flew into Hurricane Milton. Can you give us a picture of what it looked like, sounded like and felt like?
Nate Wordal: Absolutely ma’am. Hurricane Milton is a rapidly intensifying hurricane, as you guys have seen from the news, and it was quite the beast. We got thrown around quite a bit and had some really intense parts. It sounds like from each crew that have gone up, everyone’s experienced a pretty rough ride so far. Just a lot of focusing on safety and all the precautions that we can to do this job in a safe and efficient manner.
Shawn Anderson: What information are you trying to track for the forecasters at the National Hurricane Center?
Nate Wordal: We collect data throughout the storm. We drop what’s called “drop signs” throughout they give us pressure, wind speed, dew point, things of that nature and we send that data in real time to the National Hurricane Center as well as we do a process called fixing the storm, which is where we fly through the side of it and fight through the eye wall to the middle. We find the exact center of the eye. We mark it again, drop another weather instrument and send that information to the National Hurricane Center so they can add it to their models for a better forecast.
Anne Kramer: With all due respect, you make the job that you do sound so easy. And all of us are thinking, ‘Oh my god, how dangerous it is and how complicated it is.’ So what was that like? And try to help us better understand what it looks like, Captain, when you fly that far into a storm?
Nate Wordal: It’s very surreal, and it is very intense at some points. Everyone on the crew is so focused in the moment on successfully and safely completing and doing their job to the best that they can, that you kind of don’t really think about how crazy everything was until afterwards, just because you’re so focused in the moment on keeping everyone safe and doing your job.
Shawn Anderson: Now there’s a lot of talk that this storm, Hurricane Milton, could be one of the worst, if not the worst, to hit Florida’s West Coast in a century. What has been the worst storm you have been in, or your team has been in. Could you describe that for us?
Nate Wordal: We’ve done so many. I would say the worst one that I’ve personally been in was Hurricane Larry, I think a year ago or so. We’ve never really been tossed around like that before. Coming up on my fourth season, and thank goodness that hurricane didn’t really touch any populated areas. It kind of spun off into the ocean. But you get into some of these storms, and just the magnitude of, you know, the updrafts, downdrafts, lightning and hail, it can really can really rattle you if you let it. But I know that these last couple storms that have come toward the states, a lot of the crews have really been thrown around, and sounds like Milton’s been doing that to a lot of us in these last couple days.
Anne Kramer: Will you be flying back into the storm anytime soon? I know once it gets to land, it usually starts to get weaker.
Nate Wordal: Personally, I am not on the schedule for the next day. We have a lot of reservists available, and so we are full up in our crews heading out there. But if there are any follow on missions after that, then absolutely.
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