A hurricane hunter who ventured into the eye of 386 storms took one last journey after his death.
The ashes of Peter Dodge, a former meteorologist for the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), were dropped from a plane and into the swirling center of Hurricane Milton Tuesday evening.
A NOAA obituary last year reported Dodge had passed away ‘peacefully,’ but unexpectedly, on March 3, 2023 at the age of 73, calling it a ‘sudden and tragic loss.’
Dodge’s ashes were, draped in his home state of Florida’s state flag, were swaddled with his flight suit name tag and a patch denoting the scientist’s hundreds of storm missions.
The scientist’s friend and former boss, Frank Marks, did the honors of releasing the ashes — ending the tribute by logging Dodge’s final flight tally at 387 hurricanes.
Above, a photo of Peter Dodge taken by Shirley Murillo for the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) during a Hurricane research flight in 2005
According to NOAA, Dodge’s ashes took an estimated eight minutes to make their swirling descent to the surface of the Gulf of Mexico.
Friends described Dodge as a problem-solver whose coding work laid the foundation for much of the radar technology used to study storms today.
Marks recalled many death-defying flights with the late meteorologist, including an engine fire while flying into Hurricane Hugo in 1989.
‘Peter was unflappable,’ Marks told reporters. ‘That’s the best thing I can say.’
Marks, who released the ashes during an airborne ceremony attended by a dozen, first met Dodge during the job interview process at NOAA in the early 1980s
Marks said that releasing his ashes into Hurricane Milton was ‘a total honor and a great tribute to Peter and all he’s done for us.’
‘By releasing his ashes into Hurricane Milton,’ as the Hurricane Research Division’s deputy director Shirley Murillo told the New York Times, ‘we sought to honor his memory and his spirit of teamwork, adventure and curiosity.’
Dodge’s bravery in the face of the physical risks required to collect the data needed to improve tracking and modelling of hurricanes earned him some of the highest honors that the US government can bestow upon a civilian.
Over the course of his career — in which he frequently served as the radar scientist onboard NOAA planes — Dodge received a Department of Commerce Bronze Medal, two NOAA Administrator Awards, and the Army Corps of Engineers Patriotic Civilian Service Award.
‘Peter truly had an unyielding passion for participating in field activities, including flying,’ Murillo said, ‘and an insatiable curiosity for research.’
By his final years with NOAA, after Dodge had began to lose his eyesight and was no longer able to fly on hurricane missions, he continued to refine radar programs for the agency, coding with the help of a Braille keyboard.
Above, a NOAA satellite image of Hurricane Milton taken at 3:51am ET Wednesday – just a few hours after Dodge’s ashes were scattered into the storm at 11pm ET
Hurricane hunters on a mission inside Hurricane Milton late Tuesday evening (above) honored their long-serving meteorologist colleague at the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Peter Dodge, 73, releasing his ashes into the eye of the storm at 11pm
Dodge’s fellow Floridians woke up to devastation on Thursday, after Hurricane Milton slammed into the state’s Gulf Coast near Sarasota, south of Tampa Bay, leaving multiple dead and 3 million without power.
The powerful storm has slowed to a Category 3 hurricane before making landfall, but was powerful enough to clear the entire peninsula of Florida while still classifying as a Category 1 hurricane.
The storm which grew from a tropical storm to a hurricane of historic severity, shed a series of tornadoes in its wake, killing at least four people in tornadoes St. Lucie County, according to its Sheriff’s Office.
Extreme storm events like Milton may seem unprecedented, but as we enter a new climate reality, it may be time to ‘shelve that term,’ as historical geographer and hurricane hazards expert Craig Colten told DailyMail.com.
‘With a warmer climate, a storm like Helene or Milton is the new precedent,’ he said.
Up to the time of his death last year, Dodge worked tirelessly to better understand, track and predict how hurricane’s behave and are evolving.
The NOAA researcher contributed code, even as his vision deteriorated over time, to flight modules for hurricane landfall experiments and coordinated with research teams to collect data from mobile weather platforms.
‘He loved what he did,’ Marks told the Washington Post. ‘I don’t think he could think of anything else.’
Florida residents seeking help are urged to call the State Assistance Information Line (SAIL) at 1-800-342-3557 and/or the FEMA Helpline at 1-800-621-3362.
