Getting a look at Harvey from a Hurricane Hunter

Below is a journal from 10News reporter Beau Zimmer, who documented Hurricane Harvey with the NOAA’s Hurricane Hunter team.

Harvey is on a collision course with the Texas coastline as a Category 4 hurricane before making landfall.

Myself and 10News photojournalist Mitchell Wallace documented Friday morning’s critical mission, which was to give meteorologists important data to help forecast last minute changes to Harvey’s intensity at landfall and any variations in the storm’s track.

Mitchell and I were asked to be at the flight hangar by 7:45 a.m. Friday to get ready for our pre-flight briefing and safety instructions.

The team previously flew out of MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, but now has a brand new larger hangar at Lakeland Linder Regional Airport in Polk County.

While the flight crew includes some of the nation’s most experienced and highly trained pilots, we were still flying into a hurricane and there is always risk. For that reason, we were asked to sign a number of release forms and provide emergency contact information for relatives and news managers back at the station.

Timelapse of WP-3D Orion #NOAA42 flying a pass through the eye of #HurricaneHarvey from west to east. Advisories at https://t.co/3phpgKMZaS pic.twitter.com/b5lyqqkW9x

— NOAAHurricaneHunters (@NOAA_HurrHunter) August 24, 2017

First pass through the eye of #HurricaneHarvey in WP-3D Orion #NOAA42

Credit: LT Kevin Doremus/NOAA pic.twitter.com/iNBujp6wu6

The mission was aboard one of NOAA's Lockheed WP-3D Orion aircraft, nicknamed "Kermit". Commander Justin Kibbey was the pilot in command of the flight, and we’re told he has plenty experience flying airplanes into major storms.

My dear friend and former Chief Meteorologist, the late Dick Fletcher, flew numerous missions into storms with the Hurricane Hunters. I always remember him telling me how the flights were so bumpy, you’d literally have to sit on your hands to keep track of them.

Lucky for me, I don’t easily get air sick. While photographer Mitchell Wallace has previously flown with the Hurricane Hunters, this was my first flight into a storm.