In October 2024, Hurricane Milton turned into one of the fastest-growing storms on record over the Atlantic Ocean. The hurricane’s rapid gain in intensity caught meteorologists off guard, which meant the affected communities were surprised too. The storm ultimately claimed 15 lives and caused US $34 billion in damages as it tore across Florida.
Why was Milton’s explosive growth so hard to anticipate? This failure stemmed from a lack of good weather data. The kind of data you can get only by flying a
