Hurricane Melissa's 252-mph wind gust sets new record
A weather instrument dropped from a Hurricane Hunter plane during Hurricane Melissa measured the highest winds on record for such an instrument.
The National Center for Atmospheric Research has confirmed that a 252-mph wind gust was measured in Hurricane Melissa, setting a new record for the highest wind speed reported by a dropsonde — a weather instrument released by Hurricane Hunter aircraft.
The dropsonde is a small weather station attached to a parachute that measures various weather elements as it descends to the Earth's surface, transmitting the data back to the aircraft.
An NRD41 dropsonde, like the ones dropped into Hurricane Melissa, with Hurricane Irma in the background. Dropsonde technology is developed by NSF NCAR and manufactured by Vaisala. (Holger Vömel/NSF NCAR)
The 252-mph wind gust measured by the dropsonde in Hurricane Melissa was recorded at 827 feet (250 meters) above the ocean on Oct. 28, the same day Melissa made landfall in Jamaica as a Category 5 storm. The previous record for a dropsonde measurement was 248 mph, taken during Typhoon Megi over the Western Pacific in 2010.
Because the reading wasn't taken at the Earth's surface, it does not count officially in the World Meteorological Organization's world wind records. The official world wind record remains 253 mph, clocked by an automated weather station during Tropical Cyclone Olivia on April 10, 1996, at Barrow Island, Australia. The wind record for the Northern Hemisphere is 231 mph at Mount Washington, New Hampshire.
While a wind speed of 302 mph was recorded by a Doppler radar in 1999 during a tornado in Oklahoma, that measurement also occurred above the Earth's surface and is not recognized in the official WMO records.
"When I saw the 113 m/s [253 mph] just above the surface, I couldn't believe it," said Meteorologist Andy Hazelton, who was on the Hurricane Hunters flight. "My display only goes to 100."
"NOAA looped us in when they saw the high wind speed and asked, 'Are these numbers any good?'” said Holger Vömel, an NCAR senior scientist who works with the organization’s Dropsonde Program.
"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 added.
