CNN — 

  NOAA’s hurricane hunters, famous for flying into the world’s wildest weather, have a job that is not for the faint of heart, as they often run into intense turbulence while flying at 10,000 feet.   

  Now, hurricane hunters have raised the bar, entering new territory.  Literally.   

  “We’re taking the aircraft to a place we’ve never done before,” noted Dr.  Jason Dunion, a meteorologist for NOAA’s research division and lead scientist for the new mission.   

  “I see the flight we just had as groundbreaking,” he stressed.  “We’ve never taken NOAA’s hurricane hunters this far east.  We’ve opened the door to try and do more science out there.”   

  Until now, hurricane hunters had only flown into storms about mid-Atlantic to investigate.   

  But last month, for the first time, NOAA’s hurricane hunters “hunted” a potential storm all the way across the Atlantic, near the Cape Verde Islands, Aug. 9-12 in a pioneering mission.   
    CNN Weather

  “We see a lot of our hurricanes coming from a nursery over Africa,” Dunion explained.  “It’s just south of the Sahara desert, and small tropical disturbances come from that nursery, and they account for over half of the nominal storms we see in the Atlantic and about 80% to 85% of the major hurricanes we see.”   

  The “nursery” is the breeding ground for hurricanes.  Studying storms before they form will greatly improve forecasting by determining early which storms will form and which will die out.   

  The data they collect will show why storms track a certain way, why some intensify while others weaken, and which ones are worth obsessing over for more than a week as they make the long journey across the Atlantic.   

  “The advantage of working from Cape Verde is that we can have more observations of what’s happening in the atmosphere earlier, so that the forecast models have the best information available to make the best possible predictions,” described Capt.  Jason Mansour, the project aircraft.  commander.   

  He was one of a crew of nine, along with Dunion, and flying in hurricanes is nothing new to either of them.  They have experienced some of the worst weather conditions on Earth.  Dunion recalled his experience flying through Hurricane Dorian in 2019.   

  “That was when it intensified from a category 5 to a category 5+.  I felt like a feather in the wind that day,” Dunion recalled, adding, “I think we had about three to four G-forces. That’s what someone launching into space would feel.”   

  The mission in August was different.  The crew wasn’t facing a Category 5 storm that would hit the US, but the science behind the mission could be just as powerful.   

  “The things we do are about national security.  It’s about making sure the audience knows, “Am I in danger?  Should I evacuate?’  And that’s what NOAA, the United States’ scientific agency, specializes in,” Monsour emphasized.  “To make sure we have the best possible data so the best possible decisions can be made.”   

  Data collected from the tropical waves will be fed into computer models used to forecast storms.  Right now, the forecast is much more reliable out to about five days.  Further out, it is not.   

  If real-time data can be fed into the computer models, when the storm is on the opposite side of the Atlantic, the models have much less “guesswork” and could correctly initialize the storm.   

  Right now, forecast models are basically guessing where the center of the storm is until hurricane hunter aircraft can fly into it to pinpoint exactly where the center is.  The lack of early data can cause many errors in the long-term path of the storm.   

  With hurricane hunters flying into the storm from its inception, there would be much less guesswork and it would dramatically improve hurricane track forecasting and intensity forecasting.  The improvements would result in everyone from government officials to emergency managers to the general public being able to plan for hurricanes more effectively and efficiently.   

  “The hurricane center is currently forecasting a five-day forecast for future storm chances.  And we can see a time when it will be a seven-day forecast,” Dunion explained.  “If you’re looking out seven days, you really have to look further east, out [Cape Verde].”   

  Saharan dust is often referred to during hurricane season as “choking storms.”  Dry air associated with dust off the west coast of Africa creates a hostile environment for hurricanes, hindering their ability to develop and grow.   

  The crew flew over the Cape Verde Islands during a Sahara dust event and seeing it firsthand left the crew in awe.   

  “Being boots on the ground in Cape Verde and seeing that layer of dust with my own eyes was incredible,” Monsour said.  “Seeing this piece of this dust coming off the coast of Africa from a satellite, which is nice, but actually being able to see it in an operational environment with my own eyes was very unexpected and very impressive.”   

  Both Monsour and Dunion described the Saharan dust as an “eerie haze” as they flew closer to Africa.   

  By now, hurricane hunter flights were much closer to the US, so the Saharan dust was much more widespread by the time it crossed the Atlantic.  This was the first time for the crew to see the dust rise from the continent.  They said the view was breathtaking.   

  “Unbelievable view of these dusty skies where in a layer from about one to three miles up in the atmosphere, it’s just this layer of dust, really thick dust,” Dunion described.   

  The crew hopes to complete one more mission to the Cape Verde Islands this hurricane season, but Mother Nature will determine when and if that happens.   

  The storm they explored in early August didn’t become a tropical system, but Dunion noted that they can learn just as much from a storm that forms as one that doesn’t, as his crew took a new era of forecasting to new heights.   

  “These are the steps you have to take if you want to advance science,” Dunion argued.  “I think NOAA has taken a very big step in terms of being able to really operate across the Atlantic.”   

  Last week, two systems in the tropics were named, leaving us to watch Danielle and Earl this week.  Neither system poses a threat to the US mainland, however, it could be of interest if you’re traveling.   
    CNN Weather

  Tropical Storm Earl is about 175 miles north of St.  Thomas in the US Virgin Islands.  The storm is expected to continue on a northerly track for the next few days.  Right now, Earl has sustained winds of 50 mph, with higher gusts.   

  “Slow strengthening is forecast over the next few days, and Earl could become a hurricane later this week,” the National Hurricane Center wrote.   

  Although Earl is moving away from the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico, there will still be impacts on the islands.   

  “Earl is expected to produce an additional 1 to 4 inches of rainfall, with isolated storm surges totaling 8 inches, over the Leeward Islands, the U.S. and British Virgin Islands, and Puerto Rico through Monday,” the hurricane center said.   

  The current forecast track has Earl passing east of Bermuda on Friday at hurricane strength.   

  Elsewhere in the Atlantic, Hurricane Danielle is in the open Atlantic with 90 mph winds.  Danielle is expected to slowly weaken over the next few days as it drifts northeast.  Early next week, the remnants of Danielle could affect the UK, bringing rain and wind to the region.   

  Finally, there is a tropical wave off the coast of Africa that also tracks the center of the hurricanes.  They give the system a 40% chance of growth over the next few days.