Global Forecast System\u00a0<\/a>weather model, or GFS. Often called “the American model,” it is one of several forecasters used to predict what impacts the storm may bring. \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\nOne of the key ingredients: how much moisture is in the atmosphere. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
“So moisture translates to rainfall, it translates to snowfall or the amount of ice that may fall in some of these areas,” said Zawislak. “So we really need to understand the moisture content.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Hurricane Hunters will also be profiling wind speed and direction to get a better idea of the wind field driving the system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“We need to look over a larger area because these storms don’t develop on a small scale; they develop on a larger scale, and the aircraft really allow us to do that,” he said. \u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Zawislak added that it’s not uncommon for the Hurricane Hunters to fly into weather events other than hurricanes. However, they are usually focused on the Pacific Ocean. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
“We’ve actually been flying atmospheric river events and winter storm reconnaissance for many years,” he said. \u00a0“Typically, we’ve operated out of the Pacific, and we’ll be operating out of the Pacific coming next month, where we’re going to be looking at the events hitting the West in the United States. And those are really high-impact events. We have a lot of flooding, a lot of snowfall, beach erosion.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As for this mission, Zawislak says they may need to fly more than once to get the data they need to potentially save lives. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
“We’re trying to get well ahead of the storm before it even has impacts, giving the time there are two to three days for the model to improve.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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