Hurricane Pilots

Clouds can make such visual spotting difficult, however. "If we encounter a lot of cirrus clouds, we're stuck with just the radar," Fullerton said. The DC-8 pilots can direct their Doppler radar's up and down the storm scanning for trouble.

"These storms can be very rough," Fullerton said. "We can experience strong turbulence as well as rapid accumulation of ice crystals, something scientists call 'graupel.' And large hailstones can terribly damage the aircraft."

"It's also noisy," he added. "All the precipitation begins pounding on the windshield. It compares with driving your car fast through a heavy thunderstorm, with the difference being we're above 30,000 ft."

The pilots sometimes pass through strong vertical winds that accelerate the plane downward and then upward. These intense gusts can toss the pilots "up against their straps."

Image courtesy NOAA. Hurricanes form as warm, humid air rises, causing the moisture to condense out, which releases heat into the air and causes it to rise still faster in an accelerating cycle. This forms the tall, billowing thunderstorms and also leaves an area of low pressure near the surface. Surrounding air is drawn toward this low pressure, spiralling in toward the centre due to the Coriolis effect. The rising air also creates a high-pressure area at high altitude, which causes an outward spiralling of clouds high above the main storm clouds.

"Depending on the level of turbulence, it can be structurally significant to the airplane," said Fullerton, who said the heavier turbulence can surprise even seasoned pilots. "When you reach turbulence and the coffee flies out of your cup.... [well,] that's when we turn the aircraft toward an area where radar indicates the conditions are better."

Encountering a severe storm within a hurricane can be quite an experience!

While Fullerton's DC-8 ventures into the storm, ER-2 pilots fly high above it - at the very edge of space! The ER-2, a civilian version of the U-2 military spy plane, soars to 60,000 feet where instruments can record both the height and girth of the storm.