As Idalia hit Florida, all of NOAA’s hurricane-hunting planes were grounded
Story by Allyson Chiu, Dino Grandoni, Jason Samenow
As Hurricane Idalia rapidly approached Florida’s Big Bend region early Wednesday morning, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration had to ground its last remaining “hurricane hunter” plane due to a generator failure.
Dubbed Miss Piggy, the plane is one of three aircraft operated by NOAA that can collect storm data essential to forecasters. In the 24 hours before Idalia slammed into Florida, it was the only NOAA-operated aircraft available to provide the federal agency’s National Hurricane Center with data on the storm, according to one former senior NOAA official and one current employee, who spoke on the condition of anonymity due to the issue’s sensitivity.
Asked about the matter Wednesday, NOAA confirmed the plane’s technical problems.
The two other planes were undergoing repairs. After days of flying into Idalia, Miss Piggy, too, was sidelined — unable to carry out the early-morning flight requested by the Hurricane Center as the storm was set to make landfall. Instead, an Air Force plane that had also been asked to fly provided data on the storm, two current employees said.
The planes’ troubles have raised concerns about the availability of one key forecasting tool ahead of what’s shaping up to be an active hurricane season. While the Hurricane Center has other ways of gathering information, experts say forecasters rely heavily on these planes for data that helps inform watches, warnings and evacuation decisions.
In addition to the flights, NOAA said it used a variety of tools to track Idalia’s path toward Florida, including satellites and the National Weather Service’s network of radars. “NOAA has numerous observing platforms on and in the ocean this season,” said Scott Smullen, an agency spokesman.
It’s still unclear whether the Hurricane Center’s forecast suffered for having only one NOAA plane flying into Idalia as it advanced toward shore. Some experts noted that predictions about the system’s path have been accurate, and flying planes is less important as storms near shore, where they can be tracked by ground-based radars. But had the planes been unavailable earlier, it could have hurt the accuracy of forecasts, they said.
“It’s like a World Cup soccer game, and you have one goalie, and you play him every moment of every game,” one of the current NOAA officials said. “It’s a very high risk that he gets hurt, and the impact when he does that — you lose the World Cup.” 1/3
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