53rd Weather Reconnaissance Squadron

Editors' note, Monday 12:53 p.m. PDT: Several photos (numbers 2, 7, 9, and 12) were added to this gallery.

With Hurricane Ike surging toward the upper Texas shoreline, many locals are on the road to safer quarters inland. Not so for the members of the 53rd Weather Reconnaissance Squadron, based at nearby Keesler Air Force Base, Miss.--their job is to fly right into the storm. During hurricane season, the squadron flies around the clock in WC-130J aircraft to monitor the progress of storms and relay the data they collect to the National Hurricane Center. The data collected by the "Hurricane Hunters" (all members of the Air Force Reserve) is said to increase the accuracy of NHC forecasts by 30 percent.