A record-breaking 252 mph wind reading measured by a dropsonde launched from an NOAA Hurricane Hunter airplane during a mission into Hurricane Melissa has been verified, making it the strongest wind hurricane ever recorded.

The mind-boggling gust broke the previous record high wind reading set in the Western Pacific during Typhoon Megi in 2010, which was verified at 248 mph.

The colossal wind reading was verified by the US National Science Foundation National Center for Atmospheric Research (USNSF NCAR), the organization responsible for originally developing dropsondes decades ago, that continues to provide the only operational dropsondes used worldwide.

Dropsondes are Pringle-can-sized weather instruments launched from research planes into tropical storms that gather measurements of

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