So much depends on the weather

"And I feel so much depends on the weather...."

Students and NCAR teams witnessed this view last night, at dinner time. Playa Hermosa, Costa Rica after a successful 3rd flight

        It was any weekday morning in San José, Costa Rica. I woke up at 4 am, which was an unusually early time, even for the busiest of weekdays. The NOAA Hurricane Hunters were landing at the Juan Santamaría Airport in Alajuela. As a recently graduated BS in meteorology, I could not afford the $30 cab ride from my place in Sabanilla de Montes de Oca (next to the UCR campus). That meant I had to take several buses and, potentially, walk a lot if I wanted to get on time for the "open house", and speak with my childhood heroes at 10 am.

The C-130 and I, March 2012. Juan Santamaría Airport, Costa Rica

       There it was, the C-130 and its crew, already talking to the public and answering questions. My hands we shaky, maybe a bit sweaty. Oh boy, the Hurricane Hunters! What was the reason for so much excitement? A flashback would transport me back to a regular school day in my hometown Tegucigalpa, Honduras. Late in November of 1998, it might have seemed like any other day at my 6th-grade hall room. Our very first day class in at least 3 weeks very much indicated it was not a regular day. The spookiest Halloween of my country's history took us all by surprise, as CAT5 Hurricane Mitch crossed the country on a strange N-S path from the Gulf of Honduras, and then NW right before it would have exited to the Eastern Pacific. Such a trajectory was a huge mystery, not only for this "regular Jose", but even to experienced meteorologists. Hurricane Hunter Rob Rogers said a few words on TV for the Weather Channel, which were broadcast in all local TV stations. I started to wonder about many things related to the weather:
"Why did Hurricane Mitch have such an unusual path, especially after landfall?"
"What is a hurricane and why do they form only in tropical oceans?"
I made up my mind! I wanted to be a meteorologist, and fly into storms to study them.  End of flashback.

View of Tegucigalpa, Honduras. October 31, 1998 shortly after landfall of Hurricane Mitch. Credits: AP

      "What should I do  to become one of you? ", I asked the crew, almost regretting to be phrase the question in such a way, but too late to change my mind. The reply I got would slightly disappoint me.
"You have to be in the US military". Maybe it was a quick response, given to any stranger especially during a Q&A session. "Well, then", I said to myself. "Maybe I will not fly in one of these any time soon. Maybe I should be on the ground, helping those who fly. Maybe I should focus on the science. Maybe..."


        It was a not so typical morning, now in Ft Lauderdale, Florida. One of many weather briefings before a flight, during the NASA CPEX campaign, was about to start. I was part of New Mexico Tech's science team, listening to the briefing in the same room as the rest of the CPEX team: the JPL guys, the pilots, but also three other visitors from NOAA. Two of them, whom I would have immediately recognized ten years before, were unfamiliar to me then. It was until before take-off that I said, "Hi, I'm Jose." "Hi, I'm Rob Rogers", I heard back. Oh boy! I of course asked to take a picture with him and the DC-8 after we landed. However, I got more than just a photo. He told me that there were others, beside the C-130 team, who fly into tropical systems in a different aircraft, the P-3.

Rob Rogers, the DC-8, and I. Credits: Dave Raymond

        Few days after my first OTREC flight, several other historical numbers dance around in my head: 21 years have passed since an extreme weather event marked the path I would choose for my life; 2 years have passed since my first atmospheric research campaign. I've accumulated many "science miles" in between CPEX and OTREC.  In a similar way to how CPEX was the setup for an unexpected meeting with childhood heroes, OTREC now brings me back to my academic origins. Costa Rica was my home for 7 years, and it was also the place I met my current advisor, Dr Dave Raymond, one of the PIs for OTREC. In the words of Scott Weiland, one of my favorite late musicians, "and I feel so much depends on the weather, so is it raining in your bedroom?" in a nutshell wraps up this blog post, and in some way, the past two decades of my life.

Next to the NCAR Gulfstream-V aircraft, before taking off for OTREC mission flight RF01