{"id":25234291,"date":"2026-09-28T09:11:06","date_gmt":"2026-09-28T07:11:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/?p=25234291"},"modified":"2026-09-28T09:11:06","modified_gmt":"2026-09-28T07:11:06","slug":"noaa-hurricane-hunters-hurricane-polo-eye-video-p-3-kermit-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/de\/noaa-hurricane-hunters-hurricane-polo-eye-video-p-3-kermit-2026\/","title":{"rendered":"Into the Eye of Hurricane Polo: NOAA&rsquo;s Hurricane Hunters on Video"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n<style>.et_pb_title_container h1.entry-title { padding-top: 40px !important; }<\/style>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>A four-engined turboprop lurches, drops and shudders through a wall of grey. Rain hammers the windscreen, the instruments blur, and the flight engineer in the middle seat works the power levers. Then, suddenly, the cockpit fills with light: blue sky above, and all around a towering ring of cloud. The aircraft has just flown into the eye of Hurricane Polo.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>The clip was posted by the NOAA Hurricane Hunters on Facebook on 27 September and passed 7.4 million views within a day. It was filmed aboard NOAA&rsquo;s WP-3D Orion N42RF, known as &ldquo;Kermit&rdquo;, during one of a series of missions into one of the most violent storms ever recorded in the eastern Pacific.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<div style=\"margin:28px 0\"><div style=\"position:relative;padding-bottom:56.25%;height:0;overflow:hidden\"><iframe class=\"skip-lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/plugins\/video.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2FNOAAHurricaneHunters%2Fvideos%2F1603832027860215%2F&show_text=false&width=734\" style=\"position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;border:0;overflow:hidden\" scrolling=\"no\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" allow=\"autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; picture-in-picture; web-share\"><\/iframe><\/div><p style=\"font-size:13px;color:#777;font-style:italic;margin-top:6px\">NOAA WP-3D Orion N42RF &ldquo;Kermit&rdquo; flies into the eye of Hurricane Polo. Video: Billy Wysinger, NOAA, via the NOAA Hurricane Hunters on Facebook.<\/p><\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<div style=\"background:#f5f5f5;border-left:4px solid #1a1a1a;padding:18px 22px;margin:24px 0\"><p style=\"margin:0 0 8px;font-weight:600\">Quick Facts<\/p><ul style=\"margin:0;padding-left:20px\"><li><strong>Aircraft in the video:<\/strong> NOAA Lockheed WP-3D Orion N42RF, &ldquo;Kermit&rdquo; (NOAA 42)<\/li><li><strong>Posted:<\/strong> 27 September 2026, NOAA Hurricane Hunters Facebook page; video by Billy Wysinger, NOAA<\/li><li><strong>Storm:<\/strong> Hurricane Polo, eastern Pacific, September 2026<\/li><li><strong>Peak:<\/strong> Category 5, 180 mph sustained winds on 22 September<\/li><li><strong>Rapid intensification:<\/strong> Winds up 90 knots (104 mph) in 24 hours<\/li><li><strong>Record:<\/strong> Second only to Hurricane Patricia (2015) for central pressure in the eastern Pacific<\/li><li><strong>Forecast:<\/strong> Landfall in Baja California Sur on 28 September, then northwestern mainland Mexico<\/li><\/ul><\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\" style=\"margin:28px 0\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"skip-lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2026\/09\/noaa-wp-3d-orion-n42rf-kermit-in-flight.jpg\" alt=\"NOAA WP-3D Orion hurricane hunter N42RF Kermit in flight above clouds\" style=\"width:100%;height:auto;display:block\" \/><figcaption style=\"font-size:13px;color:#777;font-style:italic;margin-top:8px\">NOAA&rsquo;s WP-3D Orion N42RF, &ldquo;Kermit&rdquo;, the aircraft in the Hurricane Polo video, seen in an archive photo with a NOAA C-130 in the background. Photo: NOAA (public domain)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<h2 style=\"padding-top:22px\">A Storm That Exploded Overnight<\/h2>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>Polo became a tropical depression off southern Mexico on 20 September and a tropical storm the next day. Then it took off. Over the following 24 hours its maximum winds rose by 90 knots, or 104 mph, and on 22 September it reached Category 5 with sustained winds of 180 mph. According to NASA&rsquo;s Earth Observatory, no storm on record had gone from tropical depression to Category 5 faster.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<div style=\"background:#f8f9fa;border-left:4px solid #1565c0;padding:22px 26px;margin:30px 0\"><p style=\"font-size:19px;line-height:1.6;font-style:italic;margin:0 0 12px\">&ldquo;Truly remarkable.&rdquo;<\/p><p style=\"margin:0;font-size:14px;color:#555\"><strong>US National Hurricane Center<\/strong>, forecast discussion, 22 September 2026, on Polo&rsquo;s 90-knot jump in 24 hours<\/p><\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>Its central pressure ranks second in the eastern Pacific only to Hurricane Patricia, which set the Western Hemisphere record in 2015. Water temperatures of up to 32&deg;C, two to three degrees above normal in an El Ni&ntilde;o year, fed the storm.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<div style=\"background:#f8f9fa;border-left:4px solid #1565c0;padding:22px 26px;margin:30px 0\"><p style=\"font-size:19px;line-height:1.6;font-style:italic;margin:0 0 12px\">&ldquo;This was RAPID, rapid intensification.&rdquo;<\/p><p style=\"margin:0;font-size:14px;color:#555\"><strong>Gary Partyka<\/strong>, NASA Global Modeling and Assimilation Office<\/p><\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\" style=\"max-width:520px;margin:0 auto 24px\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"skip-lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2026\/09\/hurricane-polo-peak-intensity-goes-east-22-september-2026.jpg\" alt=\"Satellite image of Hurricane Polo at peak intensity with a small clear eye off the Pacific coast of Mexico\" style=\"width:100%;height:auto;display:block\" \/><figcaption style=\"font-size:13px;color:#777;font-style:italic;margin-top:8px\">Hurricane Polo near peak intensity on 22 September 2026, seen by NOAA&rsquo;s GOES-East satellite. Photo: NOAA\/NESDIS (public domain)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>Polo weakened, strengthened again to Category 5, and by the evening of 27 September was a Category 3 hurricane with 125 mph winds, heading north toward the Baja California peninsula. The National Hurricane Center forecast it to cross Baja California Sur on 28 September, pass over the Gulf of California and make a second landfall in northwestern mainland Mexico, still as a hurricane.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<h2 style=\"padding-top:22px\">Why Fly Into a Hurricane at All?<\/h2>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>Satellites see the top of a hurricane. They cannot measure its central pressure, or the wind at the sea surface under the eyewall, with anything like the accuracy of an aircraft inside it. That is the job of the NOAA Hurricane Hunters, flown by NOAA Corps officers and civilian flight engineers, meteorologists and scientists from the Aircraft Operations Center at Lakeland Linder International Airport in Florida.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>Their two <a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/aircraft\/lockheed-p-3-orion\/\">Lockheed WP-3D Orions<\/a>, N42RF &ldquo;Kermit&rdquo; and N43RF &ldquo;Miss Piggy&rdquo;, fly through the storm itself on missions of eight to ten hours, crossing the eye again and again in a criss-cross pattern. They drop GPS dropsondes that radio back pressure, temperature, humidity and wind all the way to the sea, measure surface winds with a stepped-frequency microwave radiometer, and scan the storm with a tail-mounted Doppler radar. A Gulfstream IV jet flies high above at around 45,000 feet, mapping the steering winds around the storm.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>The data go straight into the forecast models. NOAA&rsquo;s Polo flights also supported rapid-intensification research by its Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory: understanding why storms like Polo explode is one of the biggest open problems in hurricane forecasting.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<h2 style=\"padding-top:22px\">Who Is in the Middle Seat?<\/h2>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>The NOAA post answers the question many viewers asked. The person sitting between the two pilots is the flight engineer, who watches the four Allison turboprops and uses the power levers to hold a steady airspeed of 210 knots through the turbulence, leaving the pilots to fly the aircraft through the updrafts and downdrafts of the eyewall. It is one of the last jobs of its kind; most modern aircraft <a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/cockpit-crew-five-to-two-navigator-flight-engineer-glass-nose\/\">dropped the flight engineer decades ago<\/a>.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\" style=\"margin:28px 0\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"skip-lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2026\/09\/hurricane-eye-stadium-effect-from-noaa-p-3.jpg\" alt=\"The towering eyewall of Hurricane Katrina seen from inside the eye aboard a NOAA WP-3D Orion\" style=\"width:100%;height:auto;display:block\" \/><figcaption style=\"font-size:13px;color:#777;font-style:italic;margin-top:8px\">Inside the eye, the eyewall often curves outward like the stands of a stadium. This is Hurricane Katrina, seen from a NOAA WP-3D on 28 August 2005. Photo: NOAA (public domain)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<h2 style=\"padding-top:22px\">The Stadium Effect<\/h2>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>The moment of breaking into the eye is what makes these videos so compelling. In a strong, compact hurricane, the eyewall clouds can slope outward with height, so the crew looks up at a bowl of cloud that meteorologists call the stadium effect. A second NOAA video, filmed from the nose of N43RF &ldquo;Miss Piggy&rdquo;, shows a full pass through Polo&rsquo;s eye in real time.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<div style=\"margin:28px 0\"><div style=\"position:relative;padding-bottom:56.25%;height:0;overflow:hidden\"><iframe class=\"skip-lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/plugins\/video.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2FNOAAHurricaneHunters%2Fvideos%2F1703060847441217%2F&show_text=false&width=734\" style=\"position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;border:0;overflow:hidden\" scrolling=\"no\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" allow=\"autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; picture-in-picture; web-share\"><\/iframe><\/div><p style=\"font-size:13px;color:#777;font-style:italic;margin-top:6px\">A real-time pass through the eye of Hurricane Polo aboard NOAA WP-3D N43RF &ldquo;Miss Piggy&rdquo;. Video: Lt. Cmdr. Pierce Niemiec, NOAA Corps, via the NOAA Hurricane Hunters on Facebook.<\/p><\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<h2 style=\"padding-top:22px\">The Day Kermit Nearly Didn&rsquo;t Come Back<\/h2>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>The job is not routine. On 15 September 1989 the same aircraft, N42RF, flew into Hurricane Hugo, then a Category 5 storm east of the Caribbean, at just 1,500 feet. In the eyewall an engine caught fire and had to be shut down, and the aircraft was hit by turbulence that produced loads of +5.8 g and &minus;3.7 g, beyond its design limits. Equipment and life rafts broke loose in the cabin. The crew of 16 escaped into the eye, circled there for about an hour while dumping fuel, and climbed out through a weaker part of the eyewall found with the help of an Air Force hurricane hunter. Everyone survived. The investigation found small, tornado-like mesovortices in Hugo&rsquo;s eyewall, a phenomenon not previously documented in hurricanes.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<h2 style=\"padding-top:22px\">The Next Generation<\/h2>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>The WP-3Ds have flown into hurricanes since the 1970s. In October 2024 NOAA ordered two Lockheed Martin C-130J aircraft to replace them, with deliveries planned from 2030. The US Air Force Reserve&rsquo;s 53rd Weather Reconnaissance Squadron, the other &ldquo;Hurricane Hunters&rdquo;, already flies WC-130J Hercules from Keesler Air Force Base in Mississippi.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<style>.mfq{margin:34px 0 8px}.mfq h2{font:26px\/1.3 \"Gilroy semiBold\",Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;color:#0d1117;padding-top:22px;margin:0 0 6px}.mfq .qa details{border-top:1px solid #5C91FF;margin:0;padding:0}.mfq .qa details:last-of-type{border-bottom:1px solid #e2e7ee}.mfq .qa summary{cursor:pointer;list-style:none;display:flex;justify-content:space-between;align-items:center;gap:16px;padding:22px 26px;font:18px\/1.7 \"Gilroy semiBold\",Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;color:#0d1117}.mfq .qa summary::-webkit-details-marker{display:none}.mfq .qa summary::after{content:\"+\";font:24px Helvetica,sans-serif;color:#3568e0;flex:0 0 auto}.mfq .qa details[open] summary::after{content:\"\\2013\"}.mfq .qa details:hover summary{color:#3568e0}.mfq .qa .a{font:16px\/1.7 \"Gilroy regular\",Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;color:#454e5e;padding:0 26px 24px}.mfq .qa .a a{color:#3568e0}@media(max-width:680px){.mfq .qa summary{padding:18px 14px;font-size:17px}.mfq .qa .a{padding:0 14px 20px}}<\/style>\r\n\r\n\r\n<section class=\"mfq\"><h2>Frequently Asked Questions<\/h2><div class=\"qa\"><details open><summary>What aircraft flew into Hurricane Polo in the viral video?<\/summary><div class=\"a\">The viral video of an aircraft flying into the eye of Hurricane Polo was filmed aboard NOAA&rsquo;s Lockheed WP-3D Orion N42RF, nicknamed Kermit. It was posted by the NOAA Hurricane Hunters on Facebook on 27 September 2026 and passed 7.4 million views within a day. A second NOAA video shows a pass through the eye aboard the other WP-3D, N43RF Miss Piggy.<\/div><\/details><details><summary>How strong was Hurricane Polo?<\/summary><div class=\"a\">Hurricane Polo reached Category 5 on 22 September 2026 with sustained winds of 180 mph after its winds rose by 90 knots in 24 hours, which the National Hurricane Center called truly remarkable. Its central pressure ranks second in the eastern Pacific only to Hurricane Patricia of 2015. It reached Category 5 twice before weakening as it approached Baja California.<\/div><\/details><details><summary>Why do Hurricane Hunters fly into hurricanes?<\/summary><div class=\"a\">Hurricane Hunters fly into hurricanes to measure what satellites cannot see accurately: central pressure, surface winds under the eyewall, and the temperature, humidity and wind structure inside the storm. NOAA&rsquo;s WP-3D Orions drop GPS dropsondes, use a stepped-frequency microwave radiometer and scan the storm with tail Doppler radar. The data feed directly into forecast models and improve track and intensity forecasts.<\/div><\/details><details><summary>Who sits in the middle seat of a NOAA P-3 cockpit?<\/summary><div class=\"a\">The middle seat in the cockpit of a NOAA WP-3D Orion belongs to the flight engineer, who monitors the four engines and uses the power levers to hold a steady airspeed, around 210 knots, through the turbulence of a hurricane. That leaves the two pilots free to fly the aircraft through the eyewall.<\/div><\/details><details><summary>What is the stadium effect in a hurricane eye?<\/summary><div class=\"a\">The stadium effect is the appearance of a hurricane&rsquo;s eye in which the eyewall clouds slope outward with height, so that from inside the eye they look like the curved stands of a stadium around a patch of calm, often clear sky. It is most striking in strong, compact hurricanes such as Polo.<\/div><\/details><details><summary>Has a Hurricane Hunter aircraft ever been in serious trouble?<\/summary><div class=\"a\">Yes. On 15 September 1989 NOAA&rsquo;s WP-3D N42RF, the same Kermit seen in the Polo video, flew into Hurricane Hugo at 1,500 feet, lost an engine to fire and suffered loads of +5.8 g and -3.7 g in extreme turbulence. The crew of 16 escaped through the eye and climbed out with help from an Air Force hurricane hunter, and all survived.<\/div><\/details><\/div><\/section>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@type\":\"FAQPage\",\"mainEntity\":[{\"@type\":\"Question\",\"name\":\"What aircraft flew into Hurricane Polo in the viral video?\",\"acceptedAnswer\":{\"@type\":\"Answer\",\"text\":\"The viral video of an aircraft flying into the eye of Hurricane Polo was filmed aboard NOAA\u2019s Lockheed WP-3D Orion N42RF, nicknamed Kermit. It was posted by the NOAA Hurricane Hunters on Facebook on 27 September 2026 and passed 7.4 million views within a day. A second NOAA video shows a pass through the eye aboard the other WP-3D, N43RF Miss Piggy.\"}},{\"@type\":\"Question\",\"name\":\"How strong was Hurricane Polo?\",\"acceptedAnswer\":{\"@type\":\"Answer\",\"text\":\"Hurricane Polo reached Category 5 on 22 September 2026 with sustained winds of 180 mph after its winds rose by 90 knots in 24 hours, which the National Hurricane Center called truly remarkable. Its central pressure ranks second in the eastern Pacific only to Hurricane Patricia of 2015. It reached Category 5 twice before weakening as it approached Baja California.\"}},{\"@type\":\"Question\",\"name\":\"Why do Hurricane Hunters fly into hurricanes?\",\"acceptedAnswer\":{\"@type\":\"Answer\",\"text\":\"Hurricane Hunters fly into hurricanes to measure what satellites cannot see accurately: central pressure, surface winds under the eyewall, and the temperature, humidity and wind structure inside the storm. NOAA\u2019s WP-3D Orions drop GPS dropsondes, use a stepped-frequency microwave radiometer and scan the storm with tail Doppler radar. The data feed directly into forecast models and improve track and intensity forecasts.\"}},{\"@type\":\"Question\",\"name\":\"Who sits in the middle seat of a NOAA P-3 cockpit?\",\"acceptedAnswer\":{\"@type\":\"Answer\",\"text\":\"The middle seat in the cockpit of a NOAA WP-3D Orion belongs to the flight engineer, who monitors the four engines and uses the power levers to hold a steady airspeed, around 210 knots, through the turbulence of a hurricane. That leaves the two pilots free to fly the aircraft through the eyewall.\"}},{\"@type\":\"Question\",\"name\":\"What is the stadium effect in a hurricane eye?\",\"acceptedAnswer\":{\"@type\":\"Answer\",\"text\":\"The stadium effect is the appearance of a hurricane\u2019s eye in which the eyewall clouds slope outward with height, so that from inside the eye they look like the curved stands of a stadium around a patch of calm, often clear sky. It is most striking in strong, compact hurricanes such as Polo.\"}},{\"@type\":\"Question\",\"name\":\"Has a Hurricane Hunter aircraft ever been in serious trouble?\",\"acceptedAnswer\":{\"@type\":\"Answer\",\"text\":\"Yes. On 15 September 1989 NOAA\u2019s WP-3D N42RF, the same Kermit seen in the Polo video, flew into Hurricane Hugo at 1,500 feet, lost an engine to fire and suffered loads of +5.8 g and -3.7 g in extreme turbulence. The crew of 16 escaped through the eye and climbed out with help from an Air Force hurricane hunter, and all survived.\"}}]}<\/script><p style=\"font-size:14px;color:#777;font-style:italic;margin-top:28px\">Sources: NOAA Hurricane Hunters (Facebook posts of 27 September 2026 and earlier that week); NOAA Office of Marine and Aviation Operations; US National Hurricane Center forecast discussions for Hurricane Polo; NASA Earth Observatory, &ldquo;Explosive Intensification for Hurricane Polo&rdquo;; PBS NewsHour\/Associated Press; CBS News; Surfer; FlightGlobal (C-130J order); Wikipedia (1989 NOAA 42 Hurricane Hugo incident); NOAA and NOAA\/NESDIS imagery via Wikimedia Commons.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<div style=\"background:#f0f4ff;border-left:4px solid #5C91FF;padding:16px 20px;margin:32px 0 8px\"><p style=\"margin:0 0 8px;font-weight:600;color:#333\">Related Posts<\/p><p style=\"margin:4px 0\"><a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/cockpit-crew-five-to-two-navigator-flight-engineer-glass-nose\/\">Navigators and Flight Engineers: How Cockpits Went From Five to Two<\/a><\/p><p style=\"margin:4px 0\"><a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/william-rankin-fell-through-thunderstorm-1959\/\">The Man Who Fell Through a Thunderstorm<\/a><\/p><p style=\"margin:4px 0\"><a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/the-day-a-thunderstorm-killed-an-sr-71-blackbird-over-thailand\/\">The Day a Thunderstorm Killed an SR-71 Blackbird Over Thailand<\/a><\/p><\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>NOAA&rsquo;s WP-3D Orion &ldquo;Kermit&rdquo; punched into the eye of Hurricane Polo, one of the most intense eastern Pacific storms on record. The video, the storm and the crews who fly into it.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":26,"featured_media":25233599,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"editor_notices":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[665,670],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25234291","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-aviation-world","category-news"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Hurricane Hunters Fly Into Hurricane Polo: The Video | Afterburner - MiGFlug&#039;s Magazine<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Watch NOAA Hurricane Hunters fly into the eye of Hurricane Polo aboard WP-3D Orion Kermit, and learn why crews fly into one of the strongest Pacific storms on record.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/de\/noaa-hurricane-hunters-hurricane-polo-eye-video-p-3-kermit-2026\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"de_DE\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Hurricane Hunters Fly Into Hurricane Polo: The Video | Afterburner - 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