like a drunk but not

This is especially frustrating because the only reason we know the wind speed is because NOAA's Hurricane Hunters literally fly into the hurricane and collect vital data. They fly in and out of the storm over and over in 8 hour shifts.

This brave team flies two identical Lockheed P3s called Kermit and Miss Piggy.

You can see the dangling ornaments in the videos to determine which plane they are in.

And when I say they fly into the hurricane, I mean they fly *into* the hurricane.

Here they are in the eye of Milton.

And here they are in the eye of Irma.

As you may notice, this flight was in Kermit.

So the next time you see live data about a hurricane's wind speed and pressure, just remember how that was collected and don't be a giant turd about it.

And please vote because conservatives want to kill NOAA.

A little instrument called a dropsonde.

This is what one looks like (from Wikimedia commons). We fly into the (eye!!! Often to the eye iirc!) hurricanes, shove that in and down a tube into the hurricane, often 10+ times and then gtfo of the hurricane when enough data is gathered.

We do this with regular weather too, but in the form of regular balloons and radiosondes (technically radiowsondes because of the measurements they take, iirc), and uh, usually we do some across the entire country.

Right now, we are still missing several sites because of funding and staffing cuts Trump has done. And it’s been long enough that I think (and could be wrong but…) the models are starting to show that lack of data at least slightly. Which is honestly what a lot of folks were expecting and worried about with the major loss of those data sites.

Private industry cannot remotely do what NOAA and the NWS do. They genuinely cannot scale to the extent of what NOAA covers and also…. They SHOULDNT be. This shit isn’t a profit vector, it’s literally to help keep everyone safe and aware of what the weather is doing!!!

[Steller's Jay, Cyanocitta stelleri, USA]

[Knight Anole, Anolis equestris, USA]

[yet-to-be-identified fly, Phaoniinae, England]

[Northern Flicker, Colaptes auratus, USA]

Yes, everything about me is fucked up, but what if that was secretly awesome?

/ban user:1153984868804468756

to get rid of it.

if you're interested in the Colorful support post i made regarding this, its under the cut. i'm livid.

Discord bots you need to ban

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