A Channel 5 News photojournalist rode along with NOAA's hurricane hunters as they prepared to fly into Hurricane Polo over the eastern Pacific.

Last week, Polo was a Category 5 hurricane with winds at 180 mph. Its pressure dropped to 892 millibars, the second lowest ever recorded in the eastern Pacific, behind only Hurricane Patricia in 2015.

By Sunday, Polo had weakened to a Category 3 hurricane. The crew still had work to do.

Nick Underwood is a NOAA hurricane hunter. His job is to collect data from inside the storm.

One of his key tools is called a dropsonde.

"It's like a weather balloon but backwards," Underwood said, "So, instead of floating up through the atmosphere, we drop these from the aircraft. They've got a parachute that deploys and then as they float down, they're collecting temperature, pressure, humidity, wind speed and wind direction."

Each dropsonde falls through the storm and sends its readings back in real time to the National Hurricane Center.

"It's all about collecting data to make that forecast as accurate as possible," Underwood said.

After the flight, the crew reviews what they found and hands out patches to crew members on their first hurricane flight.

Although Hurricane Polo won't make landfall in the Rio Grande Valley, leftover moisture will boost rain chances later in the week.

"We go into these storms, collect this data," Underwood said, "but it doesn't mean much if people aren't paying attention to their local officials, paying attention to the forecasters."

The hurricane hunters do their part in the air and Underwood's reminder is simple, stay weather aware.

Watch the video above for the full story.