ORLANDO, Fla. – Hurricane Melissa has officially made more history. During a Hurricane Hunter mission a dropsonde measured a wind gust of 252 mph.

After an extensive review process, the U.S. National Science Foundation National Center for Atmospheric Research confirmed the measurement. Record wind gust for tropical cyclone measured by dropsonde in Hurricane Melissa.

Hurricane Melissa surpassed the previous record of 248 mph measured in Typhoon Megi in Western Pacific in 2010.

A dropsonde is an instrument released by Hurricane Hunter aircraft that records meteorological data from the aircraft to the ocean surface.

It is important to note that this is a wind gust and not sustained wind. This data, however, will be used by NOAA in their final report to determine if Melissa had higher su

See Full Page