Sky Watch Back on the ground, Hailes gets a call. A storm has formed in the Atlantic Ocean. Its winds are starting to slowly spin. Satellite photos of the storm show a tall tower of clouds. T ey rise 17 kilometers (10.6 miles) high. T e cloud tower is a sign the storm may
gain strength. Sure enough, it does. Within 24 hours, the storm becomes a hurricane. T e hurricane spins toward even warmer
waters. T ere, it sucks up more energy. It grows bigger and more dangerous. Soon, its winds top 252 kilometers (157 miles) per hour, making it one of the strongest hurricanes ever. T e hurricane is the big story on the news.
It’s too early to tell exactly where it will hit land, though. People near its path wait and wonder. T ere’s no time to waste. Hailes and his crew
take off . T ey fly toward the storm. Like the practice flight, this one starts smoothly.
Hunting a Hurricane For the first two hours of the flight, skies are clear. T en Hailes sees thick clouds ahead. Within minutes, winds slam into the plane. Whump! T ump! Bump! Winds knock the
plane around like a toy. Hailes didn’t expect this. Usually, winds in the outer parts of a hurricane are light. Not this time. It’s time to start collecting data. A member
of the crew prepares a dropsonde. T is tube is full of weather tools. Boom! T e dropsonde blasts out of the
plane. T e sound echoes over the roar of the engines and the thundering storm. T en a parachute on the tube opens and it floats to the sea below. As it drops, the dropsonde takes the storm’s
temperature. It also measures air pressure and wind speed. T e data show that the air pressure is dropping. T e storm is growing stronger.
Piercing the Eyewall Inside the plane, the rocky ride continues. Hailes feels like he’s in a gigantic washing machine. It’s about to get worse. T e eyewall is straight ahead. T is ring of thunderstorms surrounds the hurricane’s center, or eye. It’s the most dangerous part of the storm. T e winds whirl fastest here. Suddenly, low pressure yanks the plane.
It plunges like a runaway roller coaster. Hailes fights for control. He doesn’t want the wind to tip the plane over. He’s worried about lightning, too. It’s struck his plane before. T e electric zap made the plane’s power blink off briefly. It was the longest two seconds of his life. Finally, the plane bursts through the eyewall.
20 NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC EXTREME EXPLORER A hurricane swirls as it approaches land.
Hailes has made it safely to the eye of the storm. Winds stop rocking the plane. T e air here is calm and the skies above are clear. Yet the storm still rages all around the plane.
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