page_title: Hurricane Esther
section_title: Project Stormfury
hierarchical_section_title: Hurricane Esther / Project Stormfury
caption_attribution_description: English: Eye of Hurricane Esther viewed from Hurricane Hunter Plane. link:http://www.photolib.noaa.gov/flight/images/big/fly00716.jpg
context_page_description: Hurricane Esther was the first large tropical cyclone to be discovered by satellite imagery. The fifth tropical cyclone, named storm, and hurricane of the 1961 Atlantic hurricane season, Esther developed from an area of disturbed weather hundreds of miles west-southwest of the southernmost Cape Verde Islands on September 10. Moving northwestward, the depression strengthened into Tropical Storm Esther on September 11, before reaching hurricane intensity on the following day. Early on September 13, Esther curved westward and deepened into a major hurricane. The storm remained a Category 3 hurricane for about four days and gradually moved in a west-northwestward direction. Late on September 17, Esther strengthened into a Category 5 hurricane with sustained winds of 160 mph on September 18. The storm curved north-northeastward on September 19, while offshore of North Carolina. Esther began to weaken while approaching New England and fell to Category 3 intensity on September 21. The storm turned eastward early on the following day, and rapidly weakened to a tropical storm.
  Esther then executed a large cyclonic loop, until curving northward on September 25.
context_section_description: Hurricane Esther was also one of the first targets of a Navy experiment in modifying or weakening hurricanes by seeding them. On September 16, a Navy plane flew into the eye of Esther about 400 miles (644 km) northeast of Puerto Rico, and dropped canisters of silver iodide into the storm. The hurricane appeared to weaken slightly in response to the seeding, reportedly by ten percent. This weakening was temporary, however, as the hurricane resumed strengthening shortly after. The aircraft returned the next day to seed again, but the seeding canisters fell outside the eyewall with no effect on its structure, and the hurricane continued to strengthen. Despite this result, the experiment was deemed a success, and led to the establishment of Project Stormfury.
caption: Eye of Hurricane Esther viewed from a Weather Bureau plane
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