The Hurricane Hunters touched down in Mobile this week with a clear message ahead of hurricane season: get prepared now. The annual Hurricane Awareness Tour made a stop at Brookley Field, giving the public a rare opportunity to tour the aircraft used to fly directly into storms and collect life-saving data. Major Alex Boykin, a pilot with the U.S. Air Force Reserve’s 53rd Weather Reconnaissance Squadron, better known as the Hurricane Hunters, demonstrated how crews deploy specialized devices called dropsondes that collect data that's used to improve forecasts of a storm’s track and intensity. Boykin’s first mission was Hurricane Dorian, a Category 5 storm that devastated the Bahamas in 2019. He later flew through Hurricane Sally as it made landfall in Gulf Shores in 2020.

“I was watching it on radar as it was hitting my house in Pensacola,” said Boykin.

Flying through a hurricane is anything but smooth. While the center, or eye, of the storm can be calm, the surrounding eyewall is where conditions become dangerous. Boykin says the C-130J they fly can drop hundreds of feet in seconds due to severe turbulence.

“It can be a violent type of turbulence. Other times it’s just plain rough, which we get used to,” said Boykin.

In some cases, conditions are too dangerous to continue flying. Like last October as the crew flew into Hurricane Melissa, which made a catastrophic landfall in Jamaica. It's one of two Atlantic hurricanes to reach sustained winds of 190 mph. Crews entered the storm but turned back after encountering extreme conditions.

“Our crew, both us and NOAA, got into Melissa at that point and experienced such intense air trying to penetrate the eye wall. Once they got in the eye, they deemed it was unsafe to continue,” said Boykin.

Boykin says technology continues to improve with AI models now using the data they collected in flight to improve forecasts.

"We still haven't developed drones that can get through an eye of a hurricane, through the eye wall. The cost of that is still so high, which is why we still have manned aircraft in 2026 flying into these hurricanes," said Boykin.

For Boykin and his team, the mission is deeply personal.

“A lot of us flew combat prior, and this is the other side where we get to be here at home, making an impact on our communities,” said Boykin.

National Hurricane Center Director Michael Brennan, who also attended the tour, emphasized the importance of early preparation.

“You want to know what your risk is now. So that you're not having to scramble to make plans when a storm threatens because along the Gulf Coast, in particular, you can have a storm form, rapidly develop and make landfall within just a few days. You might not have a week to watch a storm come all the way across the Atlantic," said Brennan.

The National Weather Service says an El Niño pattern is expected to develop this year, which typically leads to fewer hurricanes due to increased wind shear. Officials warn that's just one factor.

"However, we're still looking at those warmer sea surface temperatures, and we still have, you know that possibility of getting those major hurricanes. So even though it might not be a majorly active season, it only takes one to impact us," said National Weather Service Warning Coordination Meteorologist Jessica Chace.

Hurricane season officially begins June 1st.
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