If you’ve ever white-knuckled your tray table during turbulence at 35,000 feet and thought, “this has to be the worst it gets,” think again. NOAA’s Hurricane Hunters have been there, done that—and came back with data that’ll make your last bumpy flight feel like a kiddie coaster.
New research from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University and NOAA scientists has officially identified the bumpiest hurricane flight ever: a 1989 mission into Hurricane Hugo, where the P-3 Orion aircraft endured accelerations peaking at 7.86 meters per second squared—about 25 feet per second of jolt. That’s over double what would qualify as severe turbulence in commercial aviation.
Unlike the garden-variety vertical chop passengers experience during a stormy descent, the bumpiness inside a hurricane’s eyewall is a full-body experience: forward-back (surge), side-to-side (sway), and up-down (heave)—plus three rotational axes: roll, pitch, and yaw. It’s turbulence in 4D, and the P-3 doesn’t hand out warm towels when it happens.
But Hurricane Ian (2022) wasn’t far behind.
It took the number two spot in the NOAA bumpiness index, with a turbulence rating of 6.13 m/s² recorded in the right pilot’s seat. While Hugo rattled the crew with powerful back-and-forth and vertical jolts, Ian stood out for its rare and violent side-to-side motion.
Scientists on board described the experience as unlike anything they’d felt before, as the aircraft swayed aggressively left and right while slicing through the eyewall. Remarkably, despite the pounding, the P-3 still made it into Ian’s eye and successfully launched an Altius-600 drone—a historic first.
This bumpiness index isn’t based on subjective pilot reports. It was built using physics-based calculations of three-dimensional accelerations and changes in acceleration (jerk), and crucially, it accounts for where each person sits on the plane. Much like how sitting at the end of a seesaw amplifies the motion compared to the middle, the farther you are from the aircraft’s center of gravity, the more turbulence you feel—especially rotational motion. So, on the P-3, it turns out that some seats really are worse than others.
Take Seat 2, the right pilot’s chair.
During Hurricane Ian, it registered the highest bumpiness of any position on the aircraft. In contrast, Seat 10, typically occupied by the lead project scientist or radar operator, was the smoothest ride—measuring 36% less turbulent than the cockpit. It’s no coincidence that Seat 10 is located close to the aircraft’s center of gravity, where rotational motion is minimized.
This has real implications for everyday flying, too. While commercial jets aren’t exactly configured like NOAA’s P-3s, the same principles apply. The most stable part of any plane is over the wings, near the center of gravity. That’s where you’ll experience the least bumpiness during turbulence. The front and rear of the cabin—especially the tail—tend to amplify motion, making them less ideal for turbulence-sensitive passengers.
So, the next time your flight hits a few bumps, take comfort knowing you’re not barreling through a hurricane eyewall with a 25-foot-per-second jolt trying to twist your insides. And if you are? Well, hats off to the NOAA flight crews who collect that storm data.