Hurricane Melissa winds measured at 252 MPH before Caribbean landfall, data shows
Hurricane Melissa’s wind gusts reached a record-breaking 252 mph shortly before the storm struck the Caribbean last month, according to data collected during the deadly event, News.Az reports, citing foreign media.
The measurements were obtained when a NOAA Hurricane Hunter aircraft deployed a fleet of weather instruments, known as dropsondes, into the storm, the U.S. National Science Foundation’s National Center for Atmospheric Research said in a news release.
Equipped with small parachutes, dropsondes record two to four readings per second as they descend into the ocean, capturing data on pressure, temperature, humidity, and wind simultaneously. These readings are crucial for improving forecasts, issuing weather warnings, and informing emergency alerts.
"When you're looking at a category 4 or 5 hurricane, you're not going to have an airplane flying that close to the surface – that would be totally unsafe – but you need to know what is happening near sea level because that's where people and property are most affected," said NSF NCAR engineer Terry Hock, who manages the Dropsonde program, in the news release. "The dropsonde gets you information you can't get any other way and that's why it's been around for decades."
One dropsonde used during Hurricane Melissa clocked a wind gust of 252 miles per hour shortly before falling into the ocean.
NOAA researchers contacted the NSF NCAR to confirm that it was the highest wind speed ever recorded by a dropsonde.
"NOAA looped us in when they saw the high wind speed and asked, 'Are these numbers any good?'" said Holger Vömel, an NSF NCAR senior scientist who works with the organization's Dropsonde Program.
To verify the data, Vömel and other researchers reviewed the numbers with a quality control software. They also confirmed that the reported 252 mile wind gust would have been physically possible, and that it tracked with the hurricane's behavior, as well as previous storm patterns. The review confirmed that the wind gust measurement was accurate.
The previous fastest wind gust recorded by a dropsonde was in 2010, when Typhoon Megi unleashed a 248 mile per hour blast while over the western Pacific Ocean. During Hurricane Katrina, researchers thought they had recorded an even stronger gust, but the data had substantial issues, the NSF NCAR said.
"They have pilots and researchers literally putting their lives on the line to get these measurements. They're the heroes, and it's a privilege we get to play a role in making sure the measurements they acquire are accurate," Vömel said.
Hurricane Melissa inflicted catastrophic damage in the Caribbean in late October. It made landfall in Jamaica as a Category 5 storm before progressing towards Cuba, the Bahamas, the Dominican Republic and Haiti. Dozens of people, mostly in Jamaica and Haiti, were killed in the storm.
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