NOAA Hurricane Hunter Flies Through Hurricane Polo’s 180 MPH Eyewall

Video from a NOAA WP-3D Orion Hurricane Hunter shows the aircraft flying through the solid white clouds of Hurricane Polo’s eyewall before emerging into clear air above a vast field of towering clouds. The footage was filmed by NOAA Hurricane Hunters aboard NOAA43 “Miss Piggy.”

The four-engine aircraft’s red-white-blue propeller tips remain visible as the plane punches through the eyewall and enters the eye, with blue sky appearing above the massive cloud formations.

During the September 22 mission, the aircraft measured Polo at peak intensity, with maximum sustained winds of 180 mph and a central pressure of about 892 millibars.

That reading made Polo the second-most intense eastern Pacific hurricane on record by pressure, behind only Hurricane Patricia in 2015.

Polo had exploded from a tropical storm into a Category 5 hurricane in roughly a day while remaining compact and nearly stationary south of Zihuatanejo, Mexico.

The aircraft also sampled an emerging eyewall replacement cycle later that afternoon. Data collected during the flight was used for National Hurricane Center forecasts and NOAA research.