CONTACT:  Frank Lepore             FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                 
          Gary Woodall             4/20/98
          (NWS, Southern Region Hdqtrs.)

A team of forecasters from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's National Hurricane Center and a "hurricane hunting" aircraft will promote hurricane awareness, preparedness and safety by visiting five storm-vulnerable Gulf coast communities April 27 - May 1, NOAA announced today.

The team of scientists and federal, state and local emergency managers will focus public attention on hurricane awareness as they meet with local officials, the media and the public in Corpus Christie, Texas; Port Arthur, Texas; New Orleans, La.; and Pensacola, Fla.

Acting Director of the National Hurricane Center Jerry Jarrell cites several reasons for the annual tours. While many Gulf coastal cities, along with their southeastern Atlantic counterparts, are historically prone to hurricanes, the decades of the 1970's and 80's generated a false sense of expectation. Below normal levels of activity during those years gave people very little "real" hurricane experience -experience that teaches how "big" and "bad" big and bad can be. But education and awareness properly applied can help offset lack of experience," Jarrell says.

The El Nino of 1997-1998 added to the false sense of experience last year by temporarily suppressing the number and severity of Atlantic hurricanes, notes NHC's Warning Coordination Meteorologist, John Guiney. "The most recent seasonal outlook by Dr. William Gray at Colorado State University suggests a return to near normal levels of activity for 1998," Guiney says. The Atlantic typically has about 10 named storms, six of which develop into hurricanes. Two of these hurricanes would be major, having wind speeds in excess of 110 miles per hour.

Ironically, while El Nino suppressed activity last year, the three-year period between 1995-1997 was the busiest three-year period for hurricane activity on record, generating 39 named storms, 23 hurricanes, 13 of them major.

The specialized Orion P-3 hurricane hunter aircraft carrying the party of forecasters and emergency managers serves as a primary research tool in understanding hurricanes. Data gathered by the four-engine turboprop aircraft, along with its sister aircraft of the U.S. Air Force Reserve 53rd Air Weather Squadron, are vital to analyzing a hurricane's track and intensity.

The touring hurricane hunter, flown by pilots of the NOAA Corps, the nation's smallest commissioned service, is one of two NOAA aircraft that support the agency's oceanographic and atmospheric research, often flying into the heart of these storms to gather data for NOAA and the National Hurricane Center. This same aircraft served California, Oregon and Washington this past winter by collecting data from a sequence of El Ni¤o-driven storms to strike the West Coast.

The aircraft used in this tour serves as a flying classroom and backdrop for educational briefings for area school children and the general public. Forecasters, emergency managers and air crew will brief the media and public about hurricane safety and the need for prior planning at each location.

The aircraft will be open for public inspection on the following dates and times at these airports: