NOAA-Saildrone 2024
Hurricane Mission Blog
October 9, 2024
Before its landfall on the Gulf coast of Florida, at around 21:00 UTC October 9, 2024 Hurricane Milton was observed simultaneously by the same two saildrones that observed Hurricane Helene in September. The maximum sustained winds, gusts, significant wave height (SWH), and minimum surface pressure measured by these two saildrones, and their estimated minimum distances from Milton's center are listed in the table below. This video was taken by SD-1083 when it intercepted Milton. This saildrone measured hurricane sustained wind for 0.6 hrs and hurricane gusts for 5.9 hrs. The animation below shows satellite images following Milton, overlaid with the tracks of NOAA aircraft along with airborne dropsondes and small aerial drones, locations of the two saildrones, surface drifters, and moored buoys relative to the center of Milton.
| Saildrone ID | Max 1- minute sustained wind (kts) | Max Gusts (kts) | Max Significant Wave Height (m) | Min surface pressure (hPa) | Min distance from the center (km) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1083 | 73.8 | 99.9 | 10.1 | 973.3 | 38.5 |
| 1057 | 54.2 | 69.5 | 8.3 | 994.6 | 135.3 |
Later today, another saildrone observed Hurricane Leslie near her center in the Atlantic Ocean.
September 26, 2024
Hurricane Helene was observed by two saildrones on September 26, 2024 before it made landfall at the Gulf coast of Florida. Helene was observed first by SD-1083 at 22:40 UTC September 26 and then by SD-1057 at 00:40 UTC September 27. The recorded maximum sustained winds, gusts, significant wave height (SWH), and minimum surface pressure measured by these two saildrones, and their estimated minimum distances from Helene's center are listed in the table below. SD-1083 and SD-1057 measured sustained wind and gusts above 50 kts for 2 and 1.5 hours, respectively, and measured significant wave heights over 5 m for over 14 and 5.5 hours, respectively. The animation below shows satellite images following Helene's center with overlapping aircraft flight tracks, dropsondes, surface drifters and a small aerial drone deployed from the aircraft, moored buoys, underwater gliders, and saildrones. This video was taken by SD-1083 when it intercepted Helene.
| Saildrone ID | Max 1- minute sustained wind (kts) | Max Gusts (kts) | Max Significant Wave Height (m) | Min surface pressure (hPa) | Min distance from the center (km) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1083 | 63.5 | 90.8 | 9.2 | 951 | 40 |
| 1057 | 67.2 | 88.9 | 7.2 | 954 | 30 |
August 17, 2024
TC Ernesto was observed by four saildrones before and after it became a hurricane. On August 14, 2024, when it was still a tropical storm, it was observed by SD-1091. One day later, SD-1069 intercepted Ernesto again. Over the next two days, both SD-1068 and SD-1031 went through the eyewall. The maximum sustained winds, gusts, and significant wave height (SWH), and minimum surface pressure measured by these saildrones and their estimated minimum distances from Ernesto's center are listed in the table below. These four saildrones measured sustained wind and gusts above 50 kts for 6.5 and 20.6 hours, respectively, and measured significant wave heights over 10 m for over 7 hours. The animation below follows Ernesto and shows locations of these saildrones relative to Ernesto's center, locations of underwater gliders, tracks of NOAA hurricane flights, dropsondes and small aerial drones launched from the airplanes.
| Saildrone ID | Max 1- minute sustained wind (kts) | Max Gusts (kts) | Max Significant Wave Height (m) | Min surface pressure (hPa) | Min distance from the center (km) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1091 | 52.3 | 65.7 | 6.7 | 1003.7 | 53.1 |
| 1069 | 46.9 | 57.0 | 8.9 | 1005.3 | 208.6 |
| 1068 | 59.7 | 81.9 | 10.9 | 970.1 | 29.6 |
| 1031 | 66.6 | 94.4 | 13.3 | 973.7 | 39.9 |
August 5, 2024
Tropical cyclone Debby was observed by two saildrones while strengthening into a hurricane and just prior to making landfall in Florida (see the animation below). On August 4 around 12 pm ET, Debby's center passed about 30 nm west of SD-1083 as a tropical storm (55 kt sustained winds) in the east-central Gulf. SD-1083 measured maximum sustained winds of 41 kt, gusts of 58 kt, and significant wave height of about 6 m. It spent nearly 2 hours measuring sustained TS-force winds (34+ kt sustained). 12 hours after SD-1083's closest approach, SD-1057 went through the center of Debby in the northeastern Gulf about 4 hours before it made landfall in northern Florida as a category 1 hurricane with sustained winds of 70 kt. SD-1057 measured maximum sustained winds of 50 kt, gusts of 62 kt, significant wave height of 5 m, and a minimum pressure of 983 hPa, which was only about 2 hPa higher than the storm's estimated minimum pressure at the time. SD-1057 measured TS-force winds (34+ kt sustained) for over 7 hours. A NOAA P-3 flew over Debby and deployed a dropsonde about 0.5 nm from SD-1057 at 11 pm ET August 5 in 50-kt sustained winds just north of the storm's center. An earlier sonde was dropped near SD-1057 at about 5:30 am ET in sustained winds of 20 to 25 kt well north of the storm's center.
This animation shows the locations of two saildrones when Debby passed through the eastern part of the Gulf of Mexico and the tracks of two NOAA hurricane observing flights. Colors represent temperature at the cloud top height. Back and gray embedded in red indicate the highest clouds associated with the strongest part of the storm.
July 2, 2024
Saildrone 1041 approached the northern side of hurricane Beryl. It measured a maximum wind gust of 41.8 kn, maximum sustained wind of 34.1 kn, and maximum significant wave height of 7.7 m.
June 25, 2024
Five saildrones have been launched from St. Thomas, USVI.