STORM TRACK: July 31, 1987 (Volume 10 Issue 5)

When Bill Read was drafted into the Navy in 1970, he didn't know what he was in for. Bill thought he would be shipped to Guam, after all that's where meteorologists seem to go, Guam is a great training center for the tropical meteorologist. However, Bill was given the chance to join the weather reconnaissance squadron in Jacksonville, Florida. It was truly a volunteer position, he was told. "Sounds exciting, I'll take it" and Bill jumped at the chance. He didn't mention that he had only been on a plane twice in his life. Flying on a plane seemed like fun.

For the next two years, Bill spent more time in the air in a four propeller plane than on the ground. At least it seemed that way racking up 1200 hours in the air. The mission of the Navy reconnaissance crew was to fly through hurricanes, tropical storms, and nor-eastern storms during the winter to collect weather data for forecasters. Flight level was 500 feet, just below cloud base. Bill remembers Hurricane Agnes, a small storm by hurricane standards, but what a flight. It was dawn when Agnes struck Panama City, Florida. "We were flying along the shoreline watching waves pounding the beach and pieces of trees flying through the air", Bill recalls.

He explained that they had to fly low through the storm since part of there mission was to derive surface winds from watching the sea state. Around gale force winds (34 knots), the turbulent sea forms lines of white foam from the breaking waves. At about 100 knots, the entire sea surface is a frothy white foam as wave crests are ripped apart by the wind. Between rain bands, Bill said that the windows of the airplane would cake up with salt from all the suspended salt spray going by, Blinded by sight, the pilot would have to maneuver back into a rainband to wash clear the windshield.

The weather equipment on board was state of the art. A 10 cm radar was located in the belly of the plane and a 5 cm unit was in the tail, A radiometer mentioned sea surface temperature while dropsondes measured the temperature profile from the plane to the sea surface. Bathythermographs measured the vertical profile of water temperature under the sea surface.

What about turbulence? Many of the low level flights were surprisingly smooth in the tropical storms compared to the winter storms over Cape Cod. "The cold air mass over the warm gulf stream would create the most severe turbulence", Bill said. The plane would literally shudder. "Barf Bag Specials" they were called. Flights lasted 8 to 12 hours. Bill would never think of eating during the course of the flight. "Some people would eat sloppy stuff, but not me. I'd have a couple of grilled cheese sandwiches before the mission", Bill uttered grudgingly.

Bill recalled that one plane was nearly lost when it may have hit a hurricane spawned tornado. Penetrating a rainband, the plane was lifted from 800 feet to 2800 feet in seconds, banked 70 degrees, then plummeted 2500 feet before the pilot regained control of the plane. Severe structural damage resulted to the wing and tail sections, but the plane landed safely.

Bubble plexiglass windows on the side of the plane provided a 180 degree view of the impending storm. Bill photographed the sea surface through the window. He mentioned that the photographs weren't to good since the glass was scratched by debris impact which included an occasional pigeon or two.

Lightning flash rates varied greatly from storm to storm. Bill recalled Agnes on approach: "It was a night flight, the lightning was nearly continuous. We had floodlights on the plane to illuminate the sea surface but hardly needed them in Agnes."

The squadron was decommissioned after two years and Bill went to Greenland to finish his tour of duty before returning to graduate school and then entered the Weather Service. Would he do it again? "Yep", he replied. A true storm chaser!