Crews from the 53rd Weather Reconnaissance Squadron, the Air Force Reserve Command unit at Keesler AFB, Mississippi, tracked Hurricane Irene as the storm made its way up the east coast of the US in late August 2011. The unit, known as the Hurricane Hunters, deployed four WC-130J Weatherbirds to Hunter AAF, Georgia, on 26 August in order to reduce flying time to the storm as it approached the US. Crews chased Irene as far north as New York, and to get a final fix on the storm’s position, one crew released a weather data-recording dropsonde into Hudson Bay – a first for the unit – during the last mission on 28 August. Hurricane Irene left a nearly 1,000 mile trail of destruction.
