Scientist Describes Flying Into Hurricane Lee: A Terrifying 'Roller-coaster'

An atmospheric scientist described the harrowing journey he took through the eye of Hurricane Lee last week as the storm passed northeast of the Caribbean.

As of Thursday afternoon, September 14, Lee had been downgraded to a Category 1 hurricane with sustained winds of 90 mph as it approached the Eastern Seaboard, according to a public advisory by the National Hurricane Center (NHC).

Lee has weakened since last week, when wind speeds escalated to Category 5 before falling to Category 3, where they remained for several days.

Hurricane hunters and scientists have kept a close eye on the massive storm, and last Friday, David Nolan, professor of atmospheric sciences at Rosenstiel School at The University of Miami, flew to St. Croix to join a team of National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) hurricane hunters on a plane flying through the storm's eye.

Nolan has flown through two other hurricanes—Isidore in 2002 and Ophelia in 2005—but the flight through Lee was the wildest one he has ever taken through a storm.

"It was significantly more bumpy, the plane was really going way up and down more than I had ever experienced before," Nolan told Newsweek. "It was kind of like a roller-coaster."

Nolan, who chose to fly through the storm as part of the Tropical Cyclone Rapid Intensification Project, funded by the Office of Naval Research, added that he became air sick because of the plane's erratic movements.

The plane flew into the eye of the storm, which Nolan said is the "magical place" that hurricane hunters hope to see.

"It's usually this empty space of blue sky with a wall of clouds, but we didn't see that," Nolan said. "Sometimes the eye is not in good condition."

Nolan said that there was a severe thunderstorm in the eye as the environment tried to break the storm apart, causing intense convection. Tools equipped in the plane identified that the storm was Category 3.

Then, a warning light alerted the pilot to a problem with the engine, and the hurricane hunters had to exit the storm.

"At least I could say I flew through a major hurricane, but a problem came up with the engine," Nolan said.

Nolan said that the ride was worse than turbulence experienced on commercial aircraft because the plane has to maintain the same speed and altitude.

"It was scary in the sense that it's a different kind of motion than what you ever feel on a commercial flight," he said. "When the clouds lift the plane up, the engines compensate by slowing down and reversing, so you get much more exaggerated motion with the plane than what you normally experience."

Despite weakening, Lee remains massive with hurricane-force winds extending up to 90 miles from the center and tropical-storm-force winds 310 miles, prompting some meteorologists to express concern that the storm could impact as many as 11 Northeastern states at the same time once it makes landfall. The most severe impacts will be felt along from Cape Cod in Massachusetts through coastal Maine.

The NHC expect hurricane conditions in the Northeast as well as Atlantic Canada by Saturday.