ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — A fearless bunch of NOAA Hurricane Hunters flew into the eye of Hurricane Laura on a mission to keep people along the Texas/Louisiana coastline safe.
The crew based out of Lakeland, Florida, flew into the powerful storm over the Gulf of Mexico as it was designated a major, Category 3 hurricane with winds in excess of 111 mph.
The eye of the hurricane is the calm, clear center of the storm where its pressure -- an indication of the storm's strength -- is the lowest. Video shot by NOAA's Nick Underwood shows just that, complete with a view straight down to the turbulent gulf.
Just outside the hurricane's eye is its eyewall, where the most ferocious winds occur and turbulence onboard the NOAA Hurricane Hunters aircraft can be quite bumpy.
The crew onboard uses a wide array of instrumentation to take atmospheric measurements of the storm for real-time analysis and to give weather computer models important data. In turn, meteorologists can create better forecasts and emergency management can warn people to get out of the way.
Hurricane Laura underwent a period of rapid intensification with a large drop in pressure. Typically, the lower the pressure, the higher the wind speed. In this case, Laura went from 90-mph late Tuesday to a 145-mph monster Wednesday evening.
Landfall is expected along the Texas/Louisiana coastline late Wednesday into early Thursday.
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