Late hurricane scientist's ashes spread over Milton's eye in final flight

In a special tribute to late hurricane scientist Peter Dodge, meteorologists with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) performed a burial from the sky, spreading his ashes over the eye of the now-historic Hurricane Milton.

Throughout his 44-year career as a federal hurricane radar scientist and researcher with NOAA, Dodge performed hundreds of hurricane flights, according to his former colleague, meteorologist Jeff Masters.

Masters worked alongside Dodge at NOAA's Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory in Florida.

"He did a colossal number of flights into hurricanes. I mean, he did 386 hurricane eye penetrations. And on a typical flight, you do four penetrations through the eye. So that means he flew through on the order of 100 different hurricanes," Masters told ABC News of Dodge's storied career.

Dodge died at age 73 after suffering a stroke in 2023, according to Masters. Before his death, he developed an eye condition that prevented him from continuing performing hurricane flights, Masters said.

"He would have had a lot more hurricane penetrations if he didn't have that eye condition," Masters said. "There aren't very many people that are in that rarefied of air -- I think maybe only 10 or so scientists have flown as many eye penetrations as Peter did."

NOAA Aircraft Operations Center crew dropped Dodge's ashes into the eye of Milton Tuesday when the storm was at Category 5 strength over the Gulf of Mexico.

Michael Lowry, a hurricane researcher at WPLG-TV in Florida, shared a photo on X of the flight's Vortex Data Message, which logs meteorological data and observations made during the trip.

A line on the NOAA log read, "PETER DODGE HX SCI (1950–2023) 387TH PENNY."

"HX SCI" means "hurricane scientist," and "387TH PENNY" is short for eye penetration, signaling this was Dodge's 387th flight into the eye of a hurricane.

"What a better tribute to do for him than to put him in a storm that really would have fascinated him and been something he would have wanted to study in great detail," Masters said of the burial.

"All of his former colleagues, gathered there to say a quick word, a quick prayer and commit his ashes to the great atmosphere -- that he spent his whole life devoted to," Masters said.

"That's just a wonderful way to go out," Masters added.