As the 2026 hurricane season approaches, NOAA and the U.S. Air Force Reserve will host a series of events in the Florida Keys and the Caribbean to raise awareness of hurricane preparedness for the upcoming season, which officially begins on June 1.<\/p>\n
National Hurricane Center (NHC) Director Michael Brennan, along with other NHC and National Weather Service staff, will visit with local officials and emergency managers of hurricane-vulnerable communities and discuss hurricane preparedness, resilience, and how they can become \u201cweather-ready.\u201d An Air Force Reserve Command\u00a0WC-130J \u201cHurricane Hunter\u201d<\/a> aircraft will be on hand to highlight how scientists collect data about hurricanes. Some locations offer public tours; details regarding availability are noted below.<\/p>\n WHAT:<\/p>\n NOAA\u2019s Caribbean Hurricane Awareness Tour\u00a0<\/p>\n WHEN:<\/p>\n Tuesday, April 14 through Saturday, April 18, 2026<\/p>\n WHERE:<\/p>\n April 14, Florida Keys Marathon International Airport in Marathon, Florida WHO:<\/p>\n Michael Brennan, director, NOAA\u2019s National Hurricane Center\u00a0Robbie Berg, warning coordination meteorologist, NOAA\u2019s National Hurricane Center\u00a0Jose Alamo, meteorologist, NOAA\u2019s Weather Prediction CenterKerri Englert, flight director, NOAA\u2019s Aircraft Operations Center\u00a0LCDR David Keith, aircraft acquisition deputy director, NOAA Marine and Aviation OperationsFlight crew from the U.S. Air Force Reserve aircraft<\/p>\n The\u00a0NOAA Hurricane Hunters<\/a>, stationed at the Aircraft Operations Center in Lakeland, Florida, fly missions into tropical cyclones to gather data to support storm forecasts and research.\u00a0NOAA\u2019s Lockheed WP-3D Orion<\/a>, which is\u00a0celebrating 50 years of service<\/a>, and\u00a0Gulfstream IV-SP<\/a> are piloted by NOAA Commissioned Corps officers and crewed by NOAA meteorologists, technicians and researchers.\u00a0You can take a virtual tour of these aircraft here.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As the 2026 hurricane season approaches, NOAA and the U.S. Air Force Reserve will host a series of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":220630,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[28,30,29],"class_list":["post-220629","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/220629","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=220629"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/220629\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/220630"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=220629"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=220629"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=220629"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
(Public tours begin at 1:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m. EDT)April 15, Juan Manuel G\u00e1lvez International Airport in Roatan, Honduras
(Media availability at\u00a010:30 a.m. – 10:45 a.m.)April 16, Philip S.W. Goldson International Airport in Belize City, Belize
(Media availability at 9:00 a.m. – 10:00 a.m. CST)April 18, Fernando Luis Ribas Dominicci Airport, Isla Grande, Puerto Rico
(Public tours begin at 9:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m. AST)<\/p>\n