NORTH CAROLINA -- While everyone from Florida to the Carolinas prepares for Hurricane Dorian, there are a group of men and women flying into the storm. Yes, even when Dorian became the strongest hurricane ever measured over the northern Bahamas Sunday, there was a plane flying right through the storm.

The 53rd Weather Reconnaissance Squadron are better known as the Hurricane Hunters. They are part of the Air Force Reserves that have been flying into storms for 75 years now.  

The Hurricane Hunters provide critical data for forecasting the strength and track of tropical systems. The Hurricane Hunters say they fly into major hurricanes at around 10,000 feet above and drop a packet of weather instruments called dropsondes into the eyewall. Data from these dropsondes is sent directly from the plane to the National Hurricane Center by satellite.  

When a dangerous storm is near the coast, several flights a day are scheduled into hurricanes.  Each flight has a crew of five people that include a pilot, co-pilot, navigator, flight meteorologist, and weather reconnaissance loadmaster. 

Another group of aircraft operated by NOAA also flies into the environment around hurricanes.  These flight provide other important information about the atmosphere near the storms that gets ingested into computer forecast models.

All of these flight missions provide data that leads to more accurate forecasts and additional lead time to make preparations before a storm strikes.