Hurricane Melissa’s winds reached a record 252 mph, data confirms

Hurricane Melissa Wind gusts reached record speeds shortly before the storm made landfall in the Caribbean last month, according to data recorded during the deadly event.

The data was collected when a NOAA hurricane hunter plane dropped a fleet of weather instruments into the storm, according to a news release from the U.S. National Science Foundation’s National Center for Atmospheric Research. The devices, called dropsondes, have small parachutes attached and take two to four readings per second before falling into the ocean.

Drop probes are the only devices that can record pressure, temperature, humidity and wind information at the same time. The data is used in weather forecasts and warnings, including emergency alerts.

“When you look at a Category 4 or 5 hurricane, you’re not going to have a plane flying that close to the surface, that would be totally unsafe, but you need to know what’s happening near sea level because that’s where people and property are most affected,” NSF NCAR engineer Terry Hock, who manages the Dropsonde program, said in the news release. “The probe provides information that cannot be obtained any other way and that is why it has been around for decades.”

A probe used during Hurricane Melissa recorded a wind gust of 400 kilometers per hour shortly before falling into the ocean.

NOAA researchers contacted NSF NCAR to confirm that this was the highest wind speed ever recorded by a probe.

“NOAA alerted us when they saw the high wind speed and asked, ‘Are these numbers good?'” said Holger Vömel, a senior NSF NCAR scientist who works with the organization’s Dropsonde program.

To verify the data, Vömel and other researchers reviewed the figures with quality control software. They also confirmed that the reported 252-mile wind gust would have been physically possible and that it followed the behavior of the hurricane as well as previous storm patterns. The review confirmed that the wind gust measurement was accurate.

The previous fastest wind gust recorded by a probe was in 2010, when Typhoon Megi unleashed a 248 mile per hour explosion while flying over the western Pacific Ocean. During Hurricane Katrinaresearchers thought they had recorded an even stronger gust, but the data had substantial problems, NSF NCAR said.

“You have pilots and researchers who literally risk their lives to obtain these measurements. They are the heroes, and it is a privilege that we can play a role in making sure the measurements they acquire are accurate,” Vömel said.

Hurricane Melissa caused catastrophic damage in the Caribbean in late October. It made landfall in Jamaica as a Category 5 storm before moving toward Cuba, the Bahamas, the Dominican Republic and Haiti. Dozens of people, most in Jamaica and Haitidied in the storm.