Flying into Ian: Hurricane Hunters collect valuable data from monster storm

BILOXI, Miss. (WLOX) -Lt. Col. Brad Boudreaux calls it a jinx. In other words, some people say the 2022 hurricane season isn’t as bad as 2020 or 2021. He said when that happens, sometimes people let their guard down.

“Unfortunately, I think some people we’re talking about how quiet it’s been and next thing you know, we get pretty busy as we have been the last couple of weeks,” Boudreaux said.

The team was extremely busy as we investigated what ended up being a catastrophic Hurricane Ian.

“It was pretty much what we expected. It came off of Cuba, it got a little bit rougher as you saw, and that was kind of expected,” Boudreaux added.

Rough, and sometimes amazing, like during one of the eyewall incursions. The so called “stadium effect” took place as the clouds stacked on top of each other.

“It’s kind of bittersweet, because you see something so beautiful, but yet you know it’s going to do a lot of damage to people, so we hope people are heeding the warnings,” said Cpt. Davis White, weather officer. “A hurricane is just a giant heat engine. The more heat it has access to, generally the stronger it will become.”

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