Learning about hurricanes

Over 350 local fifth graders got to step into the cockpit of a WP-3 Hurricane Hunter today. The airplane landed at Scholes Field in Galveston for the 2008 Hurricane Awareness Tour.
The students got a lesson hurricane safety and met meteorologists and engineers who fly into the eye of hurricanes...on purpose.
Hurricane Hunter data is used to pinpoint the location and strength of the storm. Measurements collected from instruments dropped from the plane while inflight are used in forecast models to project where the storm is going. The plane that landed in Galveston has made 82 penetrations, including flights into Felix in 2007 and Rita and Wilma in 2005.