They'll get essential information from new buoys installed in waters that long have gone unmonitored, and from upgraded ground sensors that for years have died in strong winds.
Late Thursday, the equipment was promised by Congress, which approved a White House proposal of more than $25 million in emergency spending to improve the nation's storm-warning system.
The money for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which oversees the Hurricane Center, comes as hurricanes are striking at a deadly pace - with nine of the past 11 years posting above-normal hurricane seasons.
NOAA officials were unable to say when the equipment would be installed, but they said it was a top priority.
Members of Congress vowed to push for the improvements after a Miami Herald series in October revealed chronic lapses in weather-observing equipment and research that for years have compromised hurricane forecasts.
Issues raised in the series, Blind Eye, immediately sparked discussions in the Senate Appropriations Committee and the House Science Committee. In late October, the White House proposed improvements that addressed many of the gaps, including:
An earmark of $9 million for a third WP-3D Orion, the nation's most advanced hurricane hunter plane.
The extra plane also will offer forecasters more options, including sending one plane into the predicted path of a hurricane while the other is in the storm.
That way, forecasters will know what's coming - namely, the heat content of the water below - so they can make better predictions. Heat fuels hurricanes; the data will be fed into the computer models to help improve intensity forecasts.
A redesign of the dropwindsonde, crucial data-gathering sensors released from hurricane hunter planes. Researchers and engineers have urged NOAA for years to fix the devices, which have failed as much as half the time in strong winds before reaching a hurricane's surface.
Eight new buoys in the Atlantic to collect data about wave height and wind speed.
Backup power on ground-based weather sensors that measure wind speed and rainfall and help forecasters plot the path of hurricanes on land. The sensors often have shut down in high winds, creating blind spots as scientists try to assess the strength of storms.
The upgrades were part of a $30 billion spending package, approved by Congress, for hurricane relief in the Gulf Coast. The package was tacked onto the 2006 defense spending bill, which President Bush is expected to sign next week.
It's unclear how much of the equipment will be in place for the 2006 season; buoys, for example, can take about a year to deliver.
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