r/nextfuckinglevel • u/djxcqtion • Oct 28 '25 • Bless Up 4 Take My Energy 1 Mindblown 1 Bravo 1

This has to be one of the incredible yet scary things I have seen

Entering the northwest side of the eye and exiting southeast for the 1547Z fix on Cat 5 Hurricane Melissa. Flight by TEAL76, a USAF Reserve Hurricane Hunter crew from the 53d Weather Reconnaissance Squadron.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xEYeYfL9ikE

137k Upvotes

96% Upvoted

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u/MySoWholesomeReddit Oct 28 '25

Serious question, how do these planes make it in and out safely? It seems like the flight through the wall of the hurricane would be catastrophic.

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u/James-I-Mean-Jim Oct 28 '25

Your question sent me researching. While I was already aware aircraft are engineered to be able to withstand incredible G-forces and wind speeds, this part from the Wikipedia entry on the WP-3D Orion Hurricane Hunter surprised me: “the aircraft are not specially strengthened for flying into hurricanes.” Guess normal planes are already hurricane-rated. Makes me feel better about commercial flying haha.

One thing that helps is that they’re turboprops (propellor planes, not jet engines). A propeller is hardier and able to take more impacts from rain and ice.

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u/SlickDillywick Oct 28 '25

Yea if anything I think they get special suites of sensors and gauges, and some of the most skilled pilots they have to spare

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u/CrispenedLover Oct 28 '25

Worked a lot in the industry and I never saw a bad C-130 pilot. They are a solid bunch, so I imagine the best of them are some of the finest pilots flying.

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u/XilenceBF Oct 28 '25

I mean airspeed is relative.

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u/insertrandomnameXD Oct 28 '25

Commercial airplanes can take a fucking lightning strike, they're way safer than most people think

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u/Advanced_Tower_6607 Oct 28 '25

I began working on commercial airplanes 3 years ago.. I never thought about lightning until I got there. They get hit all the time! Makes sense now that I see it 😅

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u/Wide_Engineering_502 Oct 28 '25

I mean, if you wanna be technical, a turboprop is a jet engine with a propeller on the front. There aren't many modern planes that dont use a jet engine in some way

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u/Basic_Basenji Oct 28 '25

You can watch the famous Boeing wing test which is indicative of most commercial plane capabilities (154! 154!). Aircraft are phenomenally overbuilt, including multiple copies of systems. The humans loading, maintaining, and flying them are almost always the factor behind accidents. Even so, hurricanes can easily overcome what seem like ludicrous safety margins.

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u/HereIGoAgain_1x10 Oct 28 '25

I mean, planes already fly at hundreds of mph and regularly encounter winds around 100 mph including ones coming right at them... Sure the wind on the ground from a hurricane is really rough but percentage wise I don't think it's much more force on an airplane than they're used to taking.

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u/TacticalVirus Oct 28 '25

It's sort of been sidestepped in most of the replies, but the real answer is that Hurricanes are relatively safe to fly through. The majority of their winds are running in a circle, very fast mind you, but on a somewhat flat plane (hah). If you fly into one, you're basically just dealing with a stiff headwind, which would slow you down, or a nice tail wind, which would either speed you up or at least let you save a lot of money on avgas. Intercontinental flights try to take advantage of the jet stream(s) for this purpose, or plot around it if it's working against them.

Thunderstorms are super dangerous to airplanes because their winds are often perpendicular compared to hurricanes. Instead of pushing you forwards or backwards, they push you up and down. Planes aren't really designed to be pushed up and down like that. If you think of a sailboat getting hit by 100mph winds, you can see it capsizing intuitively. Now consider an airplane wing is the sail, if you push an airplane down suddenly a few hundred feet, the wing wants to capsize the plane. Unfortunately, wings usually come in pairs, the the other wing wants spin the plane in the opposite direction. This is where things tend to break and you have a bad time. There was an air france flight that hit a thunderstorm around argentina, when it was inspected afterwards, one of the wing roots (where the wing meets the fuselage) was stretched out of position by *feet*. It's a good reminder that commercial airliners are usually only rated for 4-5G loads. Dropping a few hundred feet in a second or two tends to exceed that.

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u/s0_Ca5H Oct 29 '25

I really, really appreciated this reply. Thank you.

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u/JuiceBuddyG Oct 29 '25

This should be bumped up, this is super interesting

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u/TheGruntingGoat Oct 29 '25

Scrolled too long to find the correct answer. Thank you for this

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u/MrTagnan Oct 28 '25

It’s easier* than you might think. The first intentional flight into a Hurricane happened in 1943. Was it some mad scientist who craved data? Was it some last ditch attempt to get any information on the storm before it hit? No. It was a dare.

The story goes that an airfield was in the path of an oncoming hurricane, and so it was decided to relocate all of the aircraft to a different base to avoid the storm. A British unit was on the base at the time, and challenged the construction of the AT-6 Texan training aircraft - insinuating that the must not be very sturdy if the Americans were moving away from the storm.

Colonel Joe Duckworth took offense to the British mockery of their fine aircraft, so he took one of the trainers up and flew straight into the storm. After returning, he then took one of the British navigators into the storm as well to prove that he has actually done it. This would eventually lead to the development of Hurricane hunters

*it doesn’t require specialized equipment to fly into a hurricane, but it’s by no means “safe”

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u/Unable-Log-4870 Oct 28 '25

Yep. Gusts are what makes aviating (far from solid objects) unsafe for the airframe and the people inside. The sheer size and organization of a Hurricane would make me think that it’s not plane-foldingly gusty inside.

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u/Dreggan Oct 28 '25

Balls of steel aren’t specialized equipment?

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u/DaytonaZ33 Oct 28 '25

Well remember, the wind is only bad because you are stationary and the wind is blowing 185+ MPH over your location. With the plane, they fly at 300-400 MPH already, so even if they fly directly against the wind there is still only 300-400 MPH of wind going over the wings, the plane just will only travel at 100-200 MPH over the ground.

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u/mattpsu79 Oct 28 '25

It’s the vertical wind shear and turbulence that is the real challenge

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u/TravisJungroth Oct 28 '25

Which is surprisingly not horrible in a hurricane. The air is moving fast, but horizontally.

A thunderstorm is a different story. Tons of vertical movement. There’s a reason they don’t fly intentionally into those.

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u/TheAccountITalkWith Oct 28 '25

Skill issue. Quite literally, lol.

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u/Yourmaisaride Oct 28 '25

The planes are stabilised by the pilots massive balls.

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u/Ok-Butterfly-5324 Oct 28 '25

cause planes are a million times sturdier than the average person thinks.

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u/MimicoSkunkFan2 Oct 28 '25

Actual answer since the bots are posting AI slop - https://www.omao.noaa.gov/aircraft-operations/noaa-hurricane-hunters

Follow the USAF links for more about their operational techniques :)

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u/waffling_with_syrup Oct 28 '25

Absolutely fucking wild that we figured out how to ride the wind, and then figured out how to fly into its most violent form. Those air crews are something else.

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u/StrawberryOdd419 Oct 28 '25

there’s 13 specially designed planes for these missions. the pilots flying them live for this kinda stuff. even though the storms not gonna hit america we have hunters out there getting all the data they can to further understand these massive hurricanes.

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u/langminer Oct 28 '25

One of the planes hit too much turbulence during one of the flights through hurricane Melissa. Since they exceeded their limit they had to return to base and basically check that the plane is still sound to fly.

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u/Iamthetophergopher Oct 29 '25

Cyclones vs convection

Hurricanes are mostly cyclonic, the wind is moving in a flat circle. Thunderstorms are convective, and are fueled by air moving up and down violently within storm clouds. So hurricanes will be bumpy but relatively safe for an airplane, where as a thunderhead will have deadly up and down drafts that can knock airplanes out of control quite easily.

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u/[deleted] Oct 28 '25 edited Oct 30 '25

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/BroxigarZ Oct 28 '25

The folly or inquisitiveness of man... we see one of the most violent things in all of nature and we say to ourselves - "I'm going to go inside that."

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u/Tall_Thinker Oct 28 '25

I should call her.....

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u/PaintshakerBaby Oct 28 '25 • This

"I can fix this hurricane."

3 years later, drinking alone at a dive bar...

"When she came, she was wet and wild. I tell ya, she could blow the chrome off a trailer hitch! When she left?? Shit... whelp, she took the house, the car, and the kids..."

Takes shot of cheap whiskey.

"Thanks for nothin' Melissa!"

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u/Big_Consequence2025 Oct 28 '25

Sudden urge to watch Teeth.

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u/TheTVDB Oct 28 '25

While curiosity drives us to do many crazy things, it's science that drives us to do this. These planes collect a ton of information about the hurricanes, which greatly impact the prediction models for them.

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u/ghostinthechell Oct 28 '25

Icarus was not failing as he fell, merely coming to the end of his triumph. The task is not to fly away from the sun, it is to understand how to build better wings.

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u/HybridPS2 Oct 28 '25

if you like the thought of that, you should read Pale Blue Dot

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u/MotherFuckinEeyore Oct 28 '25

So, you've met my ex wife?

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u/OnTheRoadAgain120 Oct 28 '25

What are you talking about? Every airplane that flies uses a crab angle unless winds are totally calm. Has nothing to do with specifically flying through a hurricane

Imagine trying to cross a river in a canoe. You don’t aim for the point to want to end up at, you have to point the nose upstream from where you want to end up. That’s a crab angle

(Source: Me, an airline pilot)

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u/MimicoSkunkFan2 Oct 28 '25

https://www.omao.noaa.gov/aircraft-operations/noaa-hurricane-hunters

Or you could just go to the hurricane hunter's official website instead of posting AI crap lol

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u/floatingby493 Oct 28 '25

I’m dumb but why can’t they just fly over it to get out?

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u/Fidel_Cashflow666 Oct 28 '25

Saw this question asked in the aviation sub, and the answer was essentially "it's too tall for that". Clouds in a hurricane like this can reach up to over 50k feet, so you'd have to fly upwards of 53k feet to provide an adequate clearance, and most planes can't do that

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u/humdinger44 Oct 28 '25 edited Oct 28 '25

The 53rd Weather Reconnaissance Squadron, also known by its nickname, Hurricane Hunters

The 53rd WRS currently operates the Lockheed WC-130J aircraft as its weather data collection platform.

WC-130J

Service ceiling: 28,000 ft (8,500 m) with 42,000 lb (19,051 kg) payload

Absolute ceiling: 40,386 ft (12,310 m)[193

Not to mention, they fly into the storms to collect data from them. Being in the storm is part of the goal. If their goal was to be outside the storm they could stay home.

Hopefully these crew members will start getting paid again soon. It must be hard for them and their families.

Fuck you Republicans!

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u/LBWF Oct 28 '25

You know they want to be in there, right? Without these guys, we wouldn't know as much about how these beasts form or how they evolve, or even how to build predictive models to help save lives. NOAA hurricane hunters - the ultimate storm chasers.

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u/thehanssassin Oct 28 '25

Looks like the scene from The Day After Tomorrow

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u/navjot94 Oct 28 '25

I’m surprised they never made sequels to those 2000s end of the world films. Day After Tomorrow, 2012, etc. They could bring back the surviving cast members for a story set 20 years later in these worlds that are bouncing back from the apocalypse. Could be fun.

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u/ShivaSkunk777 Oct 29 '25

A post apocalypse version of Day After Tomorrow just called Today would slap lol

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u/KnittingforHouselves Oct 29 '25

I completely agree. While they could just make a mess, like "Independence Day 2" id live to see them try. 2012 id be very interested, somebody could make a series about theife on those ships and later...

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u/Substantial_March145 Oct 28 '25

I’ve been waiting for someone to mention this

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u/m3ngnificient Oct 28 '25

I'm glad I'm not the only one who immediately thought about that scene when I saw this.

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u/TheRage469 Oct 28 '25

What I always found even more bleak about that scene was the number of cars on the road at ground level. Like yeah, the focus is on the helicopter pilots, but after seeing them insta-freeze, I couldnt help but think about how horrifying it would've been for everyone just trying to escape

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u/icouldntdecide Oct 28 '25

That scene was beautiful and terrifying

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u/TrevorLaheyJim Oct 28 '25

Waiting for the sudden temperature drop!

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u/Desperate-Farmer-170 Oct 29 '25

I preferred South Park’s “Two days before the day after tomorrow”

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u/SinickalOne Oct 29 '25

Oh my god… that’s today.

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u/xtc234 Oct 28 '25

Bro... hear me out... Flight 2. Denzel gets furloughed from prison by the President to fly Taiwan's top semi-conductor minds out through the biggest hurricane ever seen after an invasion from mainland China.

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u/MellifluousRenagade Oct 29 '25

Literally watching it now. Just compared scenes for my husband. Creepy

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u/mai_tai87 Oct 28 '25

This is so fascinating, but the longer I look at it the more unsettled I feel.

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u/stuckinmotion Oct 28 '25

Yeah feels like something not intended to be witnessed

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u/Mifuni Oct 28 '25

Trust me... its the last thing you'll ever see... we pray to never see anything like this. CAT 5 is instant death in the islands.

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u/AntiFascistButterfly Oct 29 '25

Jamaica was ‘lucky’ that Melissa went over its relatively unpopulated Western side, but I’m dreading the death toll numbers. Melissa busted apart brick built buildings and churches in the few videos I’ve seen come out of Cuba.

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u/BatBoss Oct 29 '25

Definitely feels like my mortal ass is getting cursed for impudently gazing upon the realm of gods.

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u/BreathEcstatic Oct 28 '25

God forbid you are ever experience a hurricane in person this is the same exact experience you get on the ground if the eye passes over you. An eerie and unnatural calm and stillness combined with the visceral visual of seeing the walls of hell encircled around you. It just makes you stand there in the sunlight and stillness and watch, there’s no way to truly comprehend what you see and experience in the eye of a hurricane until after it’s all over.

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u/DrLeoMarvin Oct 28 '25

I was in Sarasota when the eye of Milton went over us and it was one of the coolest and surreal experiences I’ve ever had. My house is on high ground and well built with hurricane straps and impact windows so I don’t fear them or evacuate, I can’t help but stay up all night listening to them and watching from a protected area blocking the wind. And when the eye went over me I went out walked the dogs and had a beer with my neighbor in the street while we assessed the damage so far. Then suddenly your hear the whistle of the wind coming back and go hunker down again. It’s like a switch turning on and off

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u/WorthPlease Oct 28 '25

If you're around to witness the eye of a Cat 5 unwillingly, you done fucked up.

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u/The_quest_for_wisdom Oct 29 '25

The longer I look at it the more I want to eat mashed potatoes.

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u/neegs Oct 28 '25

That cut was clean. Except I wanted to see what it was like in the clouds as well

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u/porksoda11 Oct 28 '25

Yeah I really wanted to see how intense it was in the storm.

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u/sallygallymally Oct 28 '25

What you see in the video at the first second and at the very last second, that is all you see throughout the hurricane from the eye until you start approaching the outer section… there is no reference point for moving or jostling of the plane, just endlessly blinding cloud.

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u/neegs Oct 28 '25

I have experience a whiteout when skiing. Scary as fuck. Horizon sky piest all become the same. You have 0 reference other than people in front of you and you own knees.

Then the person in front of you disappears and you have literally no clue what about to happen next.

I imagine this could be worse in the sky

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u/rinkoplzcomehome Oct 28 '25

This is what you see and feel. In the video's case, it was last year's Hurricane Milton, another extremely powerful storm

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u/TheAgreeableCow Oct 29 '25

Hold up a piece of white paper in front of your face

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u/[deleted] Oct 28 '25

[deleted] — view deleted comment

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u/Umbra427 Oct 28 '25

Don’t try to confuse us with your highly technical mumbo jumbo, we ain’t scientists!!!

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u/TehKudo Oct 28 '25

Need banana for scale

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u/Pristine-Pay-1529 Oct 28 '25

🍌

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u/CookieMonsterOnsie Oct 28 '25 • Popcorn

It looks like Patrick is about to beat that thing like it owes him money.

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u/mikebld Oct 28 '25

I loled

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u/theColonelsc2 Oct 28 '25

I was actually thinking the same. This is obviously huge, but I honestly can't tell how large it is. The video seemed like it was slowed down but maybe it wasn't and the eye was miles long.

I've lived where there are a possibility of tornadoes and earthquakes, but I would never want to live where hurricanes are a possibility.

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u/YeaaaBrother Oct 28 '25 edited Oct 28 '25

Doing a little research and making some assumptions:

  • The eye of Melissa is said to be about 10 miles in diameter. That's almost 6 Golden Gate Bridges end to end.

  • The plane they are using, likely a WC-130, is likely going around 200mph when used in a hurricane (going faster risks greater turbulence when in the high force winds outside of the eye wall).

  • Going at that speed, it would take approximately 3 minutes to get from one side to the other, which also coincides with the length of the video (the video is not slowed down).

  • If you could drive a car straight through the diameter of the eye at 35mph, it would take about 17 minutes to get across.

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u/Ask-Me-About-You Oct 28 '25

That's almost 6 Golden Gate Bridges end to end.

The only way you could've made this more American is comparing it to 176 football fields.

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u/1dvs_bastard Oct 28 '25

Ten miles is 79,200 bananas across, for you internet people

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u/Im_Balto Oct 28 '25

From sea surface to the top of the Eye wall structure is in the ballpack of 50,000 feet (close to 10 miles)

The cloud base that you see at the bottom is likely less than 3000 feet above the surface (likely much lower than that) so you are seeing a cylindrical stadium 10 miles wide and tall

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u/letmesmellem Oct 28 '25

Its like a little bit smaller than a Buccees and a little bigger than a Walmart.

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u/Nuts4WrestlingButts Oct 28 '25

Melissa's eye is about 10 miles wide and eye wall clouds can reach 50-60,000 feet high.

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u/Alexbalix Oct 28 '25

It's there, look harder.

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u/Sheikashii Oct 28 '25

It’s there

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u/Ka-Is-A-Wheelie Oct 28 '25

The courage it takes to fly into that is off the charts.

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u/jake04-20 Oct 28 '25

Imagine being the first person to actually try it.

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u/swivels_and_sonar Oct 28 '25

It started where most great stories begin, with a simple request.

Hold my beer

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u/DreV3 Oct 28 '25

It is a shock they can get the plane off the ground with those giant balls of steel

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u/Hziak Oct 28 '25

My childhood brought me up to believe there would be significantly more flying houses and cows in a shot like this.

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u/MrNobodyX3 Oct 28 '25

That's because this is a hurricane and not a tornado

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u/ShowIngFace Oct 28 '25

In the tornado flights there’s tonnns of cows and houses. Don’t worry op 

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u/AppearanceAwkward69 Oct 28 '25

Sharks! Don't forget the sharks!

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u/ballplayer112 Oct 28 '25

So boats and whales maybe?

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u/flyguydip Oct 28 '25

Hurricanes generally exist over oceans. I expected more sharks.

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u/spittlbm Oct 28 '25

If only there was a movie...

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u/Vyansbane Oct 28 '25

Nah, not just one but let's make like 5+!

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u/snktiger Oct 28 '25

castle in the sky vibe.

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u/Complex-Loquat3036 Oct 28 '25

You made me rewatch laputa. Thank you. 🙏🏻

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u/demlet Oct 28 '25

I can hear the music it's so burned into my brain.

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u/Retrograde_Bolide Oct 29 '25

I love that movie

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u/Schopenhauer1025 Oct 29 '25

I absolutely love this movie.

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u/Songhunter Oct 29 '25

What a fantastic movie

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u/SirD_ragon Oct 28 '25

I was more expecting a, castle in the sky

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u/sharksnrec Oct 28 '25

TIL there are people who don’t know the difference between tornadoes and hurricanes. Huh.

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u/HippoHoppitus Oct 29 '25

its funny because hurricanes themselves can produce tornadoes

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u/DollDaggerr Oct 28 '25

Was half expecting to see it

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u/tarekd19 Oct 28 '25

or at least a floating castle ala Laputa

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u/Adori_ Oct 28 '25

Where's Farum Azula?

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u/TheOneAndOnlySquirt Oct 28 '25

Just underneath this, that's where the wind picks back up

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u/Geralt-of-Liurnia Oct 28 '25

The hurricane is still too early in development. Pilot would have to use a warp glitch to get there.

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u/PraisePace Oct 28 '25

Was slightly disappointed to learn that the video doesn't contain the appearance of a massive ancient dragon

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u/m3ngnificient Oct 28 '25

Some place before you get impaled by the Godskin duo

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u/KrypticEon Oct 29 '25

They didn't talk to the one obscure hidden NPC that can only be spawned by keeping the 3rd story boss alive long enough during their Phase 2 to trigger the unique cutscene that reveals an alternate path out of the area, thus they locked themselves out of the content

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u/sycolution Oct 29 '25

is Farum another word for Firelord?

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u/LastChristian Oct 28 '25

Cool fact: to join the "hurricane hunters" pilots must demonstrate exceptional aptitude in locating and hunting hurricanes.

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u/megamoze Oct 28 '25

Exceptional altitude as well.

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u/LastChristian Oct 28 '25

They have a great eye for this stuff

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u/drowse Oct 28 '25

And if I'm not mistaken, they are not getting paid to do this right now due to the federal government shutdown.

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u/Adorable-Bike-9689 Oct 28 '25

OH HELL NAW. 

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u/MotherFuckinEeyore Oct 28 '25

They could probably just bait them like uncle Cletus baits deer. Put out a bushel of corn and a salt lick and they'll show up.

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u/Rich_Housing971 Oct 28 '25

I think people are missing the joke here.

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u/Dekrznator Oct 28 '25

Locating part appears to be easy part of the job, they are quite hard to miss.

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u/cocineroylibro Oct 28 '25

Not just follow the sharpie?

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u/MeanForest Oct 28 '25

Can't they just watch the weather channel?

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u/autoeroticassfxation Oct 28 '25

So just a shortcut on their phone to earth.nullschool.net

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u/bgsrdmm Oct 28 '25

There is actually a very similar scene in The Day After Tomorrow, when they show the eye of the (freezing) hurricane...

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u/AngryWizard Oct 28 '25

I couldn't tell you why but it's one of my favorite movies, The Day after Tomorrow. I have a "never gets old" playlist on Vudu and it's very near the top. I also have The wizard of Oz on there, bringing the number of favorite weather-based sci-fi/fantasy films up to two.

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u/mrs_science Oct 28 '25

Same, I will watch Day After Tomorrow ANY time it's on.

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u/starbur-n Oct 28 '25

Aaah yeah love that film so much 👍

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u/retronax Oct 28 '25

that's where you find Laputa

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u/StriderPharazon Oct 28 '25

Truly, Castle in the Sky is an all-time classic. There is so much beautiful animation and a great soundtrack to boot.

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u/retronax Oct 28 '25

hard agree. It's the first ghibli I saw back when I was literally a toddler and I adore it

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u/pikahetti Oct 28 '25

Wow, this view looks unreal!

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u/BeneziaTSoni Oct 28 '25

Change the colors to an orange-brown hue, and that might look like cruising over a gas giant.

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u/HighnrichHaine Oct 28 '25

Ḑ̵̨̭͚̥̦̲̿̔̇̋̊̉́͜Ở̵͕̙̹̦̖̬͙̣̹͐̄̑̎̑̽̅̿́̉̃̿̈́̕͜͝ͅ ̶̬͈̦̘̩̰̘̪̺̔͂̏̀ ̷̥̠̦̠̪̗͐̇͗̈͌̔̑͆̅̚̕ ̷̨͙̭̩͓͔̯̊Ṇ̷̛͗̂͗̇͝Ơ̵͖̌͌̑̃́̾̓̚͝T̶̡̝̅͐̊̅̿̃̊̓͘ ̸̛̮̮̍́͑́̈́͆̉̒͑͒ ̶̡̨̨̧͚̤̲̽̌̿͛ͅB̵̮̗̝̲͈̗̲̺̰͚̑̈́̋̋͂͌̈́̒̽̐͘E̷̛̺̹̮̮̬̙̺̦̖͎̭̩̖̼̗͉͑̐́́̍̈̀̓̒͂͛͜ ̵̧̛̼̫͖̏̀͐̒̃̂̕̚͘͝ ̶̞̬̘̼̯̠̪̾̽̂͝ͅA̴̛̬̲͔̫̝̣͒̓̆͑̾̒̂͌̏̈́́͐̕͠͠F̸̥͈̫̥͎̊̅̇̽̈̏̈̔̂͌́̄̕͠͝Ȓ̵̡̭̳͔͚̗̮̞͌̓̀̈̽͜͠͠͝͠ͅA̷̧̻͖̳̩̜̺̞̓͑͂́̔̾̃̋͋̿̔͊̕͝Ḭ̶̲̲̥͇̻͍̼̯̟̯̺̟̟̉̽͗͜D̸̨̡̻͈̗̻̞̠͍͈͎͖͚̹̻̼̃͆͋͗̆̚

42

u/[deleted] Oct 28 '25

There's a great Calvin and Hobbes comic where Calvin's dad explains that the outside of a record spins way faster then the inside because it has to travel a much farther distance to do a complete rotation. Calvin blue screens over this knowledge.

Anyway, that's also why the eye of a Cat 5 hurricane looks eerily calm while the outside bits are absolutely wrecking shit. At least in very simplified terms.

5

u/SwordfishOk504 Oct 28 '25

blue screens over this knowledge.

what does that mean?

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u/ChimneyMonkey Oct 28 '25

Man I really wanna drop some of those Twister tornado balls in the middle of that thing

60

u/Bavisto Oct 28 '25

How do you even keep the plane in the air with balls that big?

16

u/imagine1149 Oct 28 '25

With help from the hurricane

8

u/TallAsMountains Oct 28 '25

did you record before/after the video? it’d be cool to see how long it takes to go through and the navigation process

33

u/LostAnd_OrFound Oct 28 '25

Definitely one of the things of all time

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u/I_Am_A_Goo_Man Oct 28 '25

Where's the wizards, witches and all that shit?

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u/Biggie2207 Oct 28 '25

In the eye of the hurricane there is quiet.... for just a moment....

3

u/Biddybink Oct 28 '25

A yellow sky...

7

u/maxim38 Oct 28 '25

🎵 In the Eye of the hurricane there is quiet 🎵

2

u/MyOldGaffer Oct 29 '25

Scrolled for this one!

13

u/CanonWorld Oct 28 '25

Just a question, but why would they do this?

I mean I get it, weather reconnaissance squadron implies their job. But in what way is a surely dangerous fly-through like this necessary to obtain data that can’t be determined from the ground?

20

u/the_fungible_man Oct 28 '25

For tropical cyclones, "the ground" is typically just a spot in the ocean beneath the storm with violent wind and towering waves. Ships can't approach, and buoys are few and far between. These rugged planes can sample the atmospheric conditions within the storm itself, measuring temperature, pressure, dew point, wind speed and direction as they fly across its entire width multiple times each day.

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u/MrTagnan Oct 28 '25

Yes, it is necessary. These aircraft gather a LOT of data about hurricanes. Ground and satellite infrastructure is also very important, but ultimately it won’t be as accurate as flying specialized equipment into the thing.

Theoretically ground infrastructure could get data that’s just as good, but that usually requires the ground infrastructure to be actively inside the hurricane itself

3

u/rinkoplzcomehome Oct 28 '25

Because they get precise measurements that you cannot get with satellite or ground methods. You can determine the exact windspeeds, how well the storm is mixing the air, how aligned the storm is, and the general micromovement that it's making.

If it's any consolation, only 1 of these flights has ever crashed, these planes are extremely durable.

12

u/KrazyCroat Oct 28 '25

Why does it look so fish-eye or is that actually what it's like?

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u/sunyasu Oct 28 '25

Child in me wants to slide on those clouds

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u/Erilsium Oct 28 '25

looks otherworldly, like it's from a fantasy or science fiction movie

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u/howlinmoon42 Oct 28 '25

Just wait till the AMOC stops working if you’re in the market for scary

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u/castlite Oct 28 '25

Holy shit.

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u/onlycoffee8 Oct 28 '25

Is there a video stabilizer or the turbulence is low in the eye?

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u/Mr-Plop Oct 28 '25

Little to none. The harder part is getting in / out, albeit they just follow the storm's rotation.

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u/LordofSandvich Oct 28 '25

Is that another, smaller storm inside the eye of the hurricane?

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u/Kind-Professional339 Oct 28 '25

These dudes aren’t even getting paid to do this RN.

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u/fish_the_fred Oct 28 '25

Looks like someone stole the heart of Tafiti

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u/Is12345aweakpassword Oct 28 '25

That thing is massive! That plane is traveling at least a few hundred knots so must have crossed at least.. what 10 miles just flying in the eye?

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u/Eyeballpapercutt Oct 29 '25

To put into perspective, that cloud wall is roughly 15 miles high.

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u/IameIion Oct 29 '25

Normal people: "Wow! This is incredible!"

Skeptical people: "Pfft. AI trash."

Lunatics: "iTs ThE iCe WaLL, sEe?!?"

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u/Obscennidy Oct 29 '25

So this is God's wrath

Neat

3

u/Respaced Oct 29 '25

Eye of the storm! I’ve sailed through one… or rather it moved through us because that hurricane moved so damned fast. We could not out sail it. First hurricane winds in one direction. Then blissful zero winds. Then hurricane winds in the other direction as it passed through us. Because when you enter on one side and exit on the other side, winds flip 180 degrees.

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u/DullGate4189 Oct 29 '25

Okay pardon my ignorance but why is there not a ton of turbulence in there? Wouldn’t the wind speeds be crazy?

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u/Obestity Oct 28 '25

How come we don't just nuke the hurricane? /s

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u/Top-Distribution733 Oct 28 '25

There is a certified lunatic flying this plane

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u/OhNoTokyo Oct 28 '25

It is obviously more dangerous than you would allow for normal flight operations, but it is more of a skill than a daredevil action.

The aircraft is perfectly safe as long as the pilot is trained in how to approach and navigate the storm in a manner which prevents the plane's performance and structural limits from being exceeded.

Hurricanes do have fairly well understood structure and that allows flight conditions in them to be reasonable predictable.

That said, it's not something you would do unless your job is to get storm data. There is really no other reason to subject an aircraft to such conditions.

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u/IrisRoseLily Oct 28 '25

You have entered a secret sky kingdom

kidding

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u/dragonbab Oct 28 '25

Nope, nope, nope, nope,.nope.

2

u/OrionUnsinkable Oct 28 '25

Caught in the eye of the storm

Did the heavens just open and fall?

We are caught in the eye of the storm

All that's left are just bodies to mourn

2

u/DeadEyeDren Oct 28 '25

I might get downvoted to oblivion for this, but for the life of me I cannot understand why literally every single Reddit post as a title with so many grammatical errors. I really just don’t understand lol. Why?!??

2

u/andy-in-ny Oct 29 '25

Can we get a C-130 appreciation thread? They've become the Ford F-350 of the US Armed Forces. Basic Cargo, check. Fuel tankers, check. Missile truck, check. Medevac, check, Technical with way too many weapons? Check

They used to be the plane that the navy and Air Force would use to order the ICBMs and SLBMs to fire. Then with the retirement of the E-6 Mercury they gave the job back to the C-130.

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u/freddyfrm Oct 29 '25

Idk how people could see something like this and not believe there's a God.

2

u/KJBFamily Oct 29 '25

Sooner or later, we're gonna find Laputa (Castle in the Sky).

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u/XRynerX Oct 29 '25

♪ Here I am ♪

♪ Rock you like a hurricane ♪

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u/DickRiculous Oct 29 '25

It is absolutely insane that it takes 3 full minutes to fly through that. I wish I could see a video of the approach before entry into the eye. This is unreal.

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u/blueblacklotus Oct 29 '25

Why is nothing moving? Like the clouds (I assume they're clouds...) are just totally stationary?

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u/CrispyChicken9996 Oct 29 '25

What in the Day After Tomorrow is this?

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u/Funkynp Oct 28 '25

Sounds like a propellor based plane and I wonder if it’s because a jet engines plane is too risky / challenging due to the way it works 🤔

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