NOAA drops a scientist’s ashes into the Category 5 Eye of Milton

A lifetime of hurricane research

Dodge, who died on March 3, 2023, worked extensively with the National Hurricane Center and the Aircraft Operations Center, focusing on both land and airborne radar research.

“During hurricane season, Peter participated in hurricane aircraft missions, acting as an onboard radar scientist and conducting radar analysis, and later becoming an expert in radar data processing,” the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory (AOML) wrote in its report newsletter January-March 2023 (helpfully highlighted by First Coast News).

According to the AOML newsletter, Dodge’s work earned him several awards, including a Bronze Medal from the Department of Commerce, two NOAA Administrator Awards and the Army Corps of Engineers Patriotic Civilian Service Award.

As his vision deteriorated over time, Dodge continued to design flight modules for hurricane landfall experiments and coordinated collaborations with research teams to collect data using mobile weather platforms. Dodge’s colleagues at AOML remembered him fondly, noting his enthusiasm for discussing current events, books, music and radar technology.

After such a life, it seems a fitting tribute that the ashes be thrown into the eye of a historic Category 5 hurricane (at the time of the crash). As Jeremy DeHart put it in a post: “What a way to get every last penny.