A Florida meteorologist’s ashes will be scattered in the eye of Hurricane Milton’s storm to honor his 44-year career

He is now one with nature.

Storm chasers scattered the ashes of a beloved longtime meteorologist into the eye of Hurricane Milton by plane Tuesday evening to honor his life’s work.

According to firstcoastnews.com, Peter Dodge was honored by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s hurricane hunters for his 44-year career as a radar and tropical cyclone specialist.

“(It’s) a beautiful tribute,” wrote Michael Lowry, hurricane specialist for WPLG-TV in Florida, on X.

The so-called vortex data from the storm measurement aircraft is “PETER DODGE HX SCI (1950-2023) 387TH” – to symbolically honor the weatherman’s 387th and final hurricane flight.

During his award-winning career, Dodge worked with the Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory, the National Hurricane Center and the Aircraft Operations Center.

Dodge died on March 3, 2023 at the age of 73.

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“Despite his progressive visual impairments, Peter continued to play a role in the annual Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory (Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory) hurricane field program, designing flight modules for the Hurricanes at Landfall experiments and coordinating with research landfall teams to share data with mobile weather platforms collect. says an AOML newsletter from early 2023.

“He will be sorely missed by those in the various work, aikido, bamboo, mindfulness and wellness and blindness communities he nurtured.”

During his decades of service, Dodge was recognized with two NOAA Administrator Awards, a Department of Commerce Bronze Medal and two Army Corp of Engineers Patriotic Civilian Service Awards.

Hurricane hunters dumped Dodge’s ashes into the then-Category 5 storm as it swirled off Florida’s west coast just after 11 p.m. Tuesday.

The powerful storm is expected to make landfall near Tampa, Sarasota and Fort Myers Wednesday evening as many of the state’s residents recover from Hurricane Helene.