A record-breaking 252 mph wind reading measured by a dropsonde launched from an NOAA Hurricane Hunter airplane during a mission into Hurricane Melissa has been verified, making it the strongest wind hurricane ever recorded.
The mind-boggling gust broke the previous record high wind reading set in the Western Pacific during Typhoon Megi in 2010, which was verified at 248 mph.
The colossal wind reading was verified by the U.S. National Science Foundation National Center for Atmospheric Research (USNSF NCAR), the organization responsible for originally developing dropsondes decades ago, that continues to provide the only operational dropsondes used worldwide.
RECORD-SETTING DRONE DEPLOYED INSIDE MELISSA, ONE OF THE MOST POWERFUL HURRICANES TO DATE
Dropsondes are Pringle-can-sized weather instruments launched from research planes into tropical storms that gather measurements of crucial data including pressure, humidity, temperature and wind that are ingested back to the research planes to later inform forecast models.
When a fleet of dropsondes were launched from the Hurricane Hunter plane into a raging Hurricane Melissa on its approach to Jamaica, researchers aboard the plane noticed a measurement that caught their attention; an astonishing 252 mph wind reading, the strongest hurricane wind ever captured by a dropsonde, according to the USNSF NCAR.
During their coverage in the storm’s eyewall at landfall, Hurricane Hunters experienced extreme turbulence and were forced to depart from the hurricane prematurely.
Upon receiving the potentially record-breaking reading via satellite, the National Hurricane Center contacted researchers at the USNF NCAR to verify the statistic.
After running the dropsonde reading through a series of tests, no anomalies were found, and the new record for the strongest hurricane-force wind had officially been verified.
Verifying wind readings through rigorous testing is a necessity in determining the validity of a gust, and in the past would-be records were thrown out for not meeting the required standard. According to the USNSF NCAR, a potential record-breaking gust from Hurricane Katrina was thrown out when substantial issues were found in the recording process.
Dropsondes are tube-shaped sensor devices dropped into hurricanes to collect and transmit data for forecasters.
After deployment, dropsondes deploy a parachute and record measurements two to four times per second as they drift through the hurricane, gathering the essential statistics forecasters use to track the movement of the storm and issue alerts in affected locations.
The 252 mph wind reading was measured right before the dropsonde plunged into the Atlantic Ocean, in an extremely dangerous environment virtually impossible to measure using any other means.
FILE: A member of NOAA’s Hurricane Hunters shows a dropsonde that is used aboard a WP-3D Orion aircraft. This photo was taken in Houston, Texas, on May 1, 2023.
(Aaron Barker / FOX Weather)
The verified wind reading is just another record-breaker associated with Hurricane Melissa, a deadly category 5 monster hurricane that is tied for the strongest Atlantic Hurricane to make landfall on record.
