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Show bv David Warren r - ft ,. - ,r- , .z. v Shown is a "Privateer" aircraft of Patrol Squadron Twenty Thrco as it is flying near the "eye" of a bad hurricane. is relayed to Kindley Air Force Base in Ber- ' . 3 sance Squadron is stationed. Operations officer Major W. W. Dick who flew a Superfortress against irapan in World War II orders the hunt tobegin. Up goes a weather plane and five big, nours later n nnas a swrm wnicn aireaay is moving at fifteen miles an hour and gatherI ing force every minute. The plane immediately confirms the hurricane's birth and Miami christens it. Because it is the year's first big blow, the hurricane becomes known as Alice. The Air Weather Service pilot's first job is to "box" Alice in, studying weather conditions all around her. He knows that such storms are usuaUy gentlest at the southwest ern edge, but even there the wings tremble in the roaring wind and the fuselage rings from the driving rain. Up front in the nose compartment, which used to house the bombardier, sits the meteorologist surrounded by his weather machines. For over an hour, he samples the air all around Alice while the plane is whipped around like a twig in a whirlpool. The meteorologist's findings are radioed to Miami every fifteen minutes, while the radar operator's reports on wind direction and velocity are jent back every five minutes. four-engin- ed -- V ...ff , S-f?- 2 x ! t . ft- - . The eye cf tho typhoon "Margo" is caught on the radar scope as it roared across tho sky somewhere in the Far East. of the Army and Navy EACH year somearound the Caribbean meet stationed a string of powerful females who arrive on the scene in alphabetic )rder: Alice, Bertha, Carrie, Dorothy, etc. But these muscular ladies are decidedly unlovely creatures who can grab hold of an airplane and throw it on its tail. Alice, Bertha, etc. are the hurricanes which rage up out of the Caribbean every year, especially from June to December. It's the job of the Air Weather Service to go up to meet them and track them down until they blow themselves out. The hurricane hunters take off from fields in Bermuda, Puerto Rico and Miami, where Bureau Hurrithe Air cane Warning Center is located. Into this center come reports of weather conditions which . Force-Navy-Weat- her FAMILY VEIXLY MAGAZINE are suspected of breeding hurricanes. Trained observers evaluate these reports, dispatch fliers to study conditions and if warranted issue storm warnings. Patrol planes and ships at sea report suspicious climatic conditions to Miami. In addition, the Navy has a ring of seismograph stations around the Caribbean and the Gulf of Mexico to detect the earth vibrations touched off by the hurricanes. And at Grand Isle, Louisiana, the Humble Oil Company operates a radar station to protect oil wells against sneak attack by the howling winds. Let's imagine a ship moving through the Caribbean. The sea appears to be calm, but the captain finds that his glass is steadily falling, indicating a decline in normal air pressure which could spell trouble ahead. He radios the warning center and soon the alert iwHEN the hurricane has been circled, it's time to fly through to her very center. The plane shudders and shakes, but at the eye of the storm the hurricane hunters enter a cloudless vault where the sea is quiet and the air is smooth. el This island of calm serenity within a of destruction has a weird, other-worfascination. Sometimes the fliers see below a fishing boat whose crewmen are 6pmpletely pin-whe- ld DECIMSEa 27, 1953 rwrnir CTEE7U.T MAGAZINE v |