Twenty-six years ago Jon "Astro" Talbot came to the Island on his honeymoon.

Little did he know he would spend the next three decades patrolling the skies above Bermuda in a Hurricane Hunter aircraft.

"When I told my wife I was coming she wasn't too impressed," he told The Royal Gazette yesterday while aboard the WC-130J Hercules aircraft. "We've been trying to get back here since our honeymoon, but just haven't found the time. We stayed at Ariel Sands and loved it."

Three years after his honeymoon he joined the US Air Force Reserve 53rd Weather Reconnaissance Squadron. Since then, Astro, who is the squadron's chief flight meteorologist, has flown over Bermuda countless times but this week was the first time he actually returned to the Island.

"From June 1 to November 30 we are out there, every storm that builds we check out," he said. "Our job is to collect the data that other people use to report on hurricanes and predict trends.

"We fly into the storm and take readings, we also drop equipment right into the eye of the storm to collect more data. We fly in an 'X' so that we can collect information from all areas of the storm."

Yesterday, schoolchildren and invited guests toured the a high-wing, medium-range aircraft to learn about hurricanes and the role of hurricane hunters during an event at the L.F. Wade International Airport marking Hurricane Awareness Month.

The team operates ten aircraft with 20 crews of about 100 air staff, based at Keesler Air Force Base in Biloxi, Mississippi.

NOAA (the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) operates another three Hurricane Hunters plus a G-IV Gulfstream high altitude jet, based at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, Florida.

Together the crews collect data from each tropical storm, updating the National Hurricane Center's computer models 24/7 for as long as the storm is active. They monitor the temperature, humidity, wind speed and direction of the storm among other things.

Since 1944, military aircrews have been flying directly into the core of tropical cyclones to gather critical weather data. Modern technology means the data is sent from the aircraft via satellite directly to the National Hurricane Centre.

Last year the crew flew 38 Atlantic missions, five in the eastern North Pacific and eight in the central North Pacific.

But how is it that they can go into the middle of a storm that rips off roofs, causes flooding and generally leaves a trail of havoc in its wake?

Astro says it's all down to speed. The plane is built to fly slowly at a lower altitude, which means the risk of ice collecting on their wings is reduced and they can avoid lightening.

"It's like travelling on a road with a lot of pot hole," Astro said. "You slow down to avoid the bumps. Well, a hurricane has a lot of turbulence so flying slower is better.

"We are in the storm for about six hours, with a flying time of between ten and 12 hours in total."

Last year was one of the quietest hurricane seasons in the last decade, which is one of the reasons the team decided to hit the road on a ten-day trip around the Caribbean with National Hurricane Center director Bill Read.

"It is important people prepare for hurricanes," he said. "Since Katrina people are starting to take it more seriously."

The crew leaves the Island today.