As an award-winning scientist, Peter Dodge has conducted hundreds of flights into the eyes of hurricanes, nearly 400. On Tuesday, a crew conducting a reconnaissance flight into the eyes of hurricanes Hurricane Milton helped him make one more, letting his ashes fall 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 that one of NOAA’s goals was to make this happen.”
Ash was released into the eye of the hurricane Tuesday evening, less than 24 hours before Milton made landfall on Siesta Key, near Sarasota, Florida. A flight observation log, which records information such as position and wind speed, ended with a reference to Dodge’s 387th and final flight.
“He loves this aspect of his job,” Shelley Dodge said. “It’s bittersweet. On the one hand, a hurricane is coming and we don’t want that for people. But on the other hand, I really wanted this to happen.”
Sim Aberson/NOAA via AP
Dodge died in March 2023 at age 72 from complications of a fall and stroke, his sister said.
The Miami resident spent 44 years in federal service. Among his accolades were several awards for technology used to study the destructive winds of Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
He was also part of the crew aboard a reconnaissance flight during Hurricane Hugo in 1989, which experienced severe turbulence and saw one of its four engines catch fire.
“They almost didn’t escape the eye,” Shelley Dodge said.
Objects inside the plane were ripped out and thrown into the cabin. After jettisoning excess fuel and some heavy instruments to allow the flight to climb further, an inspection revealed no major damage to the aircraft and the aircraft continued. The plane eventually emerged from the storm without injuring any crew members, according to NOAA.
A degenerative eye disease ultimately prevented Dodge from making further reconnaissance flights.
Shelley Dodge said NOAA kept her informed of when her brother’s final mission would take place and relayed the information to those close to him.
“There were several moments where they thought all the pieces were going to fall into place, but it had to be the right combination, the research flight. It all had to come together,” she said. “It finally happened on the 8th. I wasn’t sure until they sent me the official document that showed exactly where in the eye it happened.”
Dodge had advanced expertise in radar technology and had a keen interest in tropical cyclones, according to a March 2023 newsletter from NOAA’s Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory announcing his death.
The newsletter said his colleagues were “saddened by the sudden and tragic loss of one of his longtime meteorologists,” who passed away peacefully on March 3.
He has collaborated with the National Hurricane Center and the Aircraft Operations Center on airborne and ground-based radar research. During the Hurricane aircraft missions, he served as an onboard radar scientist and performed radar analyses. He later became an expert in radar data processing, the newsletter said. He received a Bronze Medal from the Department of Commerce, two NOAA Administrator Awards, and the Patriotic Civilian Service Award from the Army Corp of Engineers.
Dodge’s ashes were contained in a package. Among the symbols draped on it was the flag of Nepal, where he spent time as a Peace Corps volunteer teaching math and science to high school students before becoming a meteorologist.
Hurricane specialist Michael Lowry shared a photo on the NOAA Journal’s social media, noting that the ashes had fallen, calling it a “beautiful tribute.”
An avid gardener, Dodge also had a fondness for bamboo and participated in the Japanese martial art Aikido, attending a session the weekend before his death.
“He just had an intellectual curiosity that was undaunted, even after he lost his sight,” Shelley Dodge said.
