The US Air Force WC-130J Hurricane Hunter aircraft visited
Grand Cayman on Wednesday.
Around 700 school children toured the plane, which is used
for reconnaissance missions into tropical storms and hurricanes.
Bill Read of the National Hurricane Center of the United
States said he had been to Cayman recently to get ready for hurricane season and
explained what the Hurricane
Hunters team does.
“We go around the Caribbean and Mexico making stops to give
people the opportunity to learn how we do our job and take out the mystery of
what it takes to forecast for the hurricane season. We also take the opportunity
to get people thinking about being prepared for the upcoming hurricane
season.
“We have meetings with leaders of the community, give
science lectures to people who work with the industry and of course the school
kids. People like me with a little grey hair are dense and don’t learn as fast,
but those kids, what we teach them... will stay with them for the rest of their
life and they’ll hopefully bring it home so that you are ready for hurricane
season,” said Mr. Read.
The team of the 53rd Weather Reconnaissance Squadron is the
only operational unit worldwide that flies weather reconnaissance on a routine
basis.
The 10 aircraft of the squadron fly into storms to gather
data on hurricanes for use by the National Hurricane Center, which is used by
weather stations in North America and the Caribbean.