Melissa, now a Category 5 hurricane, made landfall in Jamaica this afternoon as the strongest storm in the nation’s recorded history . At 1:00 p.m. ET, the storm was hammering the island with 185-mile-per-hour (295-kilometer-per-hour) winds and torrential rain as its eye moved over the southwestern coast, according to the National Hurricane Center (NHC).

On Monday, the 53rd Weather Reconnaissance Squadron—a team of U.S. Air Force hurricane hunters—flew into this historic storm to collect data for the NHC. The pilots captured astounding photos and videos of Melissa’s eyewall—a towering ring of thunderstorms that swirls around the eye of a hurricane—before severe turbulence forced them to turn back.

Watch These Live Webcam Views of Jamaica as Hurricane Melissa Makes Landfall

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