U.S., Cuba Cooperate to Monitor Hurricanes

Sept. 2006

August 29: US Air Force C-130 "hurricane hunters" flew into Cuban airspace at least twice a day, sampling storm conditions such as wind speed, barometric pressure and other meteorological measurements. Despite nearly five decades of tension between the United States and Cuba, storm safety overrode all that. "We are both in the same business -- we're trying to save people's lives," said Lixion Avila, a Cuban-born hurricane specialist at the National Hurricane Center in West Miami-Dade. US forecasters publicly thanked Cuba for granting access to island airspace so they could obtain data vital to tracking Ernesto. (The Miami Herald, 30/8/06)

August 31: For the US and Cuban governments the weather is usually a safe topic. For decades, the two countries have quietly worked together to track tropical storms and hurricanes in hopes of saving their citizens' lives. The two sides share meteorological data on storms. Cuban forecasters have received training in the US. Eight US Air Force C-130 planes crossed into Cuban airspace to gather information on Tropical Storm Ernesto's wind speed, center and other information. In an unusual public acknowledgment, the National Hurricane Center commended Fidel Castro's communist government for its assistance. "Special thanks to the government of Cuba for permitting the recon aircraft (to) fly right up to their coastline to gather this critical weather data," forecaster Stacy Stewart wrote in an advisory. Jose Rubiera, head of Cuba's Meteorological Institute, told reporters in Havana in May that the cooperation "is not only desirable, it is necessary to save human lives." Still, the issue of airspace has been tricky. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which oversees the hurricane center, has long been allowed to fly its WP-3D Orion planes over Cuban airspace, but it has only two of them, limiting the amount of time it can fly during a storm. (AP, 31/8/06)