Hurricane Awareness Tour lands in Roanoke, bringing cool planes, important message

As far inland as we are, hurricanes can and do impact us.

ROANOKE, Va. – The Hurricane Awareness Tour landed Wednesday in Roanoke.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration picked Roanoke as one of only five stops for this year's tour. 

There's far more than just hurricane hunters at the Roanoke-Blacksburg Regional Airport. Representatives from FEMA, the National Weather Service and basically every agency involved in emergency services locally is at the event.

The goal is to spread a really important message of awareness before a hurricane hits.

As far inland as we are, hurricanes can and do impact us. Just this past hurricane season, we had two hurricanes hit.

At the airport are the actual planes that are flown into the eye of the storm while the crews onboard collect data to help you know where it's heading and what to expect.

These measurements and readings help Storm Team 10 communicate how what a hurricane is doing could impact us here at home.

So while you may think of the coast when you think hurricanes, the whole reason this tour is stopping in Roanoke is to make sure you are prepared, too. 

"In hurricanes historically, most of the deaths are from water and not wind. And so we see a lot of deaths from inland flooding miles and miles from the coastline and just last year we had some deaths in this area after Hurricane Michael," said senior hurricane specialist Daniel Brown, with the National Hurricane Center.

If you want to see all this for yourself, you're in luck. 

Head to the airport between 2 p.m. and 5 p.m. and tour the planes for yourself. 

Our team certainly enjoyed taking a look at all the tour has to offer!


About the Authors:

Jessica anchors 10 News on Saturdays and Sundays at 6 and 11 p.m. You can also catch her reporting during the week.

Meteorologist Chris Michaels is an American Meteorological Society (AMS) Certified Broadcaster, forecasting weather conditions in southwest Virginia on WSLS 10 News from 5 a.m. to 7 a.m. weekdays on Virginia Today.