NOAA releases hurricane scientist’s ashes into Hurricane Milton’s eye

As an award-winning scientist, Peter Dodge had made hundreds of flights into the eyes of hurricanes — almost 400. On Tuesday, a crew on a reconnaissance flight into Hurricane Milton helped him make one more, dropping his ashes into the storm as a lasting tribute to the longtime National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration radar specialist and researcher.

“It’s very touching,” Dodge’s sister, Shelley Dodge, said in an interview Thursday with The Associated Press. “We knew it was a goal of NOAA to make it happen.”

The ashes were released into the eye of the hurricane Tuesday night, less than 24 hours before Milton made landfall in Siesta Key near Sarasota, Fla. An in-flight observations log, which charts information such as position and wind speed, ended with a reference to Dodge’s 387th — and final — flight.

“He’s loved that aspect of his job,” Shelley Dodge said. “It’s bittersweet. On one hand, a hurricane’s coming and you don’t want that for people. But on the other hand, I really wanted this to happen.”

Dodge died in March 2023 at age 72 of complications from a fall and a stroke, his sister said.

The Miami resident spent 44 years in federal service. Among his awards were several for technology used to study Hurricane Katrina’s destructive winds in 2005.

He also was part of the crew aboard a reconnaissance flight into Hurricane Hugo in 1989 that experienced severe turbulence and saw one of its four engines catch fire.

“They almost didn’t get out of the eye,” Shelley Dodge said.

Items inside the plane were torn loose and tossed about the cabin. After dumping excess fuel and some heavy instruments to enable the flight to climb further, an inspection found no major damage to the plane and it continued on. The plane eventually exited the storm with no injuries to crew members, according to NOAA.

A degenerative eye disorder eventually prevented Dodge from going on further reconnaissance flights.