Hurricane Hunters question - nighttime flights

[CrazyC83]

I know, from the report released by Landsea and Hagen in 2012 re: extreme Atlantic storms and observational data, that the first Hurricane Hunters flights were only done during the daytime (had to see the ocean surface) and had limitations in strength they could reach. When was the first nighttime flight with center fixes - both (if different) on a routine basis and on an experimental basis? I'm wondering that for a report I am doing.

I know by the 1960s (or even late 1950s, although when they went into Janet in 1955 with a 914mb pressure the plane was lost), the aircraft started to routinely take on very intense hurricanes with pressures in the 920s, although there were no other extreme storms in that era with pressures below 920mb until Camille.

[brunota2003]

The crew that was lost in Janet (Snowcloud Five, the book about it, it is a very good read and packed with tons of info regarding the flight AND hurricane meteorology in general), penetrated at a measly 700 ft. No one knows what happened to the plane, and it has never been located. The last known radio transmission ended with "Beginning penetration.", though another garbled transmission came across the wires a little while later (too garbled to tell where it originated from, let alone what was said).

Weather Underground article about the flight:
http://www.wunderground.com/hurricane/hunter4.asp

NAVY RECONNAISSANCE FLIGHT 5U93, OBSERVATION NUMBER FIVE, AT 1330 GMT (8:30AM EST), MONDAY, LOCATED AT LATITUDE 15.4 DEGREES N, LONGITUDE 78.2 DEGREES W. OBLIQUE AND HORIZONTAL VISIBILITY 3-10 MILES, ALTITUDE 700 FEET, FLIGHT WIND 050 DEGREES (NE) 45 KNOTS (52 MPH). PRESENT WEATHER LIGHT INTERMITTENT SHOWERS, PAST WEATHER SAME, OVERCAST AND SOME SCUD BELOW, SURFACE PRESSURE 1,003 MILLIBARS (29.62 INCHES), SURFACE WINDS 050 DEGREES (NE), 45 KNOTS (52 MPH). BEGINNING PENETRATION.

I would highly recommend this book!
http://www.amazon.com/Stormchasers-Hurr ... 1214326711

As far as your questions, I am afraid I cannot answer them.
http://www.403wg.afrc.af.mil/library/fa ... sp?id=7483

You could always contact the Hurricane Hunters on facebook or via email. It seems the Hurricane Hunters' actual website is gone, now though?

[brunota2003]

Here is a personal website maintained by former Navy Hurricane Hunters...of whom would have flown during the time span you are looking for:

http://navyhurricanehunters.com/

[HURAKAN]

The 914 mb in Janet was measured at landfall in the Yucatan peninsula, not by RECON. The lowest RECON measured was 938 mb the day before landfall, if I remember correctly (I did the reanalysis over a year ago). Nighttime penetrations were routinely done by about 1958, RECON stayed about 12 hours inside the eye of Helene as it slowly moved along the NC coast. The problem with nighttime flights is that they couldn't see the ocean and thus, couldn't make an intensity estimate.

this is part of my discussion for Janet:

"A reconnaissance aircraft reached the hurricane at 1540Z measuring a central pressure of 938 mb. A central pressure of 938 mb suggests maximum sustained winds of 123 kt and 125 kt intensifying, according to the south of 25N pressure-wind relationships. An intensity of 130 kt is selected for 12Z and 140 kt for 18Z, as the hurricane was traveling at about 20 kt. It is analyzed that at 18Z on the 27th, Janet reached category 5. Originally HURDAT had a central pressure of 914 at 06Z on the 27th, but this was measured at 06Z on the 28th, and therefore, it is moved to its correct time slot. Only 12 hours after devastating Swan Island, Janet was moving over the Yucatan Peninsula with an even stronger intensity. Janet moved over Chetumal, Mexico, where a central pressure of 914 mb was measured around 06Z on the 28th. The nearby city of Corozal, Belize, measured a pressure of 916 mb at 0610Z. A central pressure of 914 mb suggests 144 kt and 146 kt intensifying, according to the south of 25N pressure-wind relationships. An intensity of 150 kt is selected at 06Z on the 28th, a major change to HURDAT as it originally had 130 kt. 150 kt is also selected for 00Z on the 28th, matching original HURDAT. "

[CrazyC83]

I knew about the problem with seeing the sea surface at night, which was mentioned in the Landsea/Hagen report. I know the NOAA P-3 was the first plane (per a reanalysis on 10 storms that were mostly east coast landfalls) to reliably measure flight-level winds, and that was not until the 1970s.

I'm doing a historical backwards-reanalysis using 2008 to 2012, assuming only historical methods were available, to see if seasons really are becoming more active. My early findings are interesting - of the 18 major hurricanes in that period, only 10 of them would have been classified as major hurricanes if they happened in the 1940s/50s (joined by one more that would have been analyzed as a major then but not today), and only five would have been considered major hurricanes (an average of 1 a year, instead of 3.6) before aircraft flights:

Gustav (based on the Cuban wind and pressure data)
Ike (ditto)
Paloma (based on the wind data from the Cayman Islands)
Irene (based on surface pressure data from the Bahamas)
Sandy (based on surface pressure data from Cuba)

Other storms that would have been analyzed as majors in the 1944-65 period but not before include Bill, Alex (not a major in BT), Danielle, Earl, Igor and Karl.

Of the other majors:
Fred, Julia and Michael would have been missed completely
Bertha would have been considered a Cat 1 or 2 (peaked before Recon)
Omar would have been considered a Cat 2 (flight was at night)
Katia would have been considered a Cat 1 or 2 (ship data and flights)
Ophelia would only have been considered a tropical storm (peaked after Recon left; no ships or land stations could deduce hurricane conditions)
Rina would have been considered a Cat 2 (high pressure for its intensity; considered a major on SFMR readings)
Michael

An average of four storms each year would have been missed completely without satellites and modern technology even in the 1946-65 period, while that increases to an average of 5-6 storms each year before aircraft flights.