Hurricane Melissa winds hit record-breaking 252 mph, data confirms

Hurricane Melissa’s wind gusts reached a record-breaking speed 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 airplane dropped a fleet of weather instruments into the raging storm, according to a news release from the U.S. National Science Foundation National Center for Atmospheric Research. The devices, called dropsondes, have small parachutes attached and between two and four readings per second before falling into the ocean. 

Dropsondes are the only devices that can record information on pressure, temperature, humidity and wind at once. The data is used in forecasts and weather warnings, including 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.