Officials plan for fewer hurricane hunter flights ...

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DanKellFla
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Officials plan for fewer hurricane hunter flights ...

#1 Postby DanKellFla » Sat May 19, 2007 7:19 pm

http://www.palmbeachpost.com/storm/cont ... ights.html

TAMPA, Fla. — Although forecasters predict an active hurricane season, federal officials said crews will fly fewer hurricane hunter flights from the MacDill Air Force Base.

Officials hope that reducing flights will make missions more efficient, said Philip Kenul, commander of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Aircraft Operations Center in Tampa.

"We're just trying to be a little bit smarter about the way we spend federal dollars," Kenul said.

NOAA officials have planned for 354 hours of flying time for hurricane-related missions during this fiscal year, the St. Petersburg Times reported. In 2005, 707 hours were allocated for the flights out of Tampa.

Kenul said additional funds from the National Weather Service will help pay for more flying time. The National Weather Service is part of NOAA. He also said crews will fly additional missions if necessary, regardless of budget constraints.

"We have never canceled a mission because of dollars, and we never will," Kenul said.


:?: :?: :x

What are they thinking?
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JonathanBelles
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#2 Postby JonathanBelles » Sat May 19, 2007 7:27 pm

All I have to ask is why?
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Opal storm

#3 Postby Opal storm » Sat May 19, 2007 7:56 pm

Well I hope they don't get caught off guard this season.
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#4 Postby Chacor » Sat May 19, 2007 8:13 pm

Probably just part of the NOAA overhaul that seems to be occurring right now. If only someone would knock some sense into them. I'm almost assuming that this means they'll neglect sending planes into EPac systems threatening land (like they did for Adrian 05 and a few storms last year).
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#5 Postby CajunMama » Sat May 19, 2007 8:15 pm

The article reads that it's reducing flights from ONE base. It's not the entire program. If needed, more flights will be made.
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#6 Postby Aslkahuna » Sat May 19, 2007 8:16 pm

They flew the EPAC storms last year because of low ATL activity and they had to use up their recon dollars. The rule in Federal Budget affairs is that if you don't use this Fiscal Year's money, you get less next year. Saving money is NOT encouraged in the Federal Agencies.

Steve
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Derek Ortt

#7 Postby Derek Ortt » Sat May 19, 2007 8:44 pm

those are NOT the Hurricane Hunters. That is the NOAA flights that are being reduced, FOR THIS SEAOSN ONLY

Next year, the flight hours may be DRAMATICALLY INCREASED as the Doppler data is needed to initialize HWRF
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Rainband

#8 Postby Rainband » Sat May 19, 2007 8:46 pm

Derek Ortt wrote:those are NOT the Hurricane Hunters. That is the NOAA flights that are being reduced, FOR THIS SEAOSN ONLY

Next year, the flight hours may be DRAMATICALLY INCREASED as the Doppler data is needed to initialize HWRF
no need to shout derek :lol: Thanks for the info :D
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#9 Postby Cyclenall » Sun May 20, 2007 12:26 am

Why this is lovely :roll: .

Derek Ortt wrote:those are NOT the Hurricane Hunters. That is the NOAA flights that are being reduced, FOR THIS SEAOSN ONLY


The beginning of the article clearly says:

TAMPA, Fla. — Although forecasters predict an active hurricane season, federal officials said crews will fly fewer hurricane hunter flights from the MacDill Air Force Base.


Are you saying that the article is the one that is wrong?

"We're just trying to be a little bit smarter about the way we spend federal dollars," Kenul said.

Doesn't sound very smart to me.

Kenul said additional funds from the National Weather Service will help pay for more flying time. The National Weather Service is part of NOAA. He also said crews will fly additional missions if necessary, regardless of budget constraints.

Why was that random sentence stuck in there? :lol: It appears they're trying to shove that message hard into peoples minds. Seems odd and funny.
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#10 Postby pojo » Sun May 20, 2007 2:16 am

This is the NOAA Hurricane Hunters NOT the USAF RES Hurricane Hunters. We will be flying all missions that CARCAH (NHC) gives us.
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#11 Postby Sjones » Sun May 20, 2007 6:34 am

All that matters is that someone needs to be flying out there frequently :lol:
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#12 Postby wobblehead » Sun May 20, 2007 4:42 pm

POJO,
Is the USAF RES Hurricane Hunters funded by NOAA or military funding? Incidently thanks for the work you folks perform for us. If not for the data you provide we certainly would be forecasting partially blind.
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#13 Postby caneflyer » Sun May 20, 2007 5:49 pm

Flying done by the Air Force Reserves is not funded through NOAA (Dept of Commerce). It's part of the Defense Dept. budget, and as noted above by some, reconnaissance flying doesn't stop if the money is used up. Neither, by the way, does it really matter if there is a slow season, so the comment above about flying east Pacific systems to protect the recon budget was nonsense. NHC would never put people's lives at risk (reconnaissance is hazardous, you know) to make a budget look good.
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Derek Ortt

#14 Postby Derek Ortt » Sun May 20, 2007 5:59 pm

The EPAC storms are generally flown by the AF, not NOAA. NOAA almost exclusively flies the Atlantic and CAPC
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