SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP/WHDH) — Maj. Jeremy DeHart has some advice for Floridians after flying through Hurricane Harvey last month and now through the eye of Irma at 10,000 feet on Wednesday.
The U.S. Air Force Reserve weather officer says to “take it seriously …. because this is the real deal.”
DeHart has flown into about 20 hurricanes, and he says he’s never gone into anything quite so powerful. Or beautiful. Inside Irma’s calm, cool center, there’s a stadium effect, with thunderstorms flashing on the surrounding eyewall. He calls it “spectacular,” and says the “satellite images can’t do it justice.”
Richard Henning, another hurricane hunter for the NOAA, described flying into the eye as looking the “inside of a circular football stadium.” With Irma being the strongest-known storm in this past of Atlantic, Henning said the warm water temperature is one reason why the storm has grown so big.
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