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.
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 sustained winds than currently thought.
That will come out during the offseason.
As of right now, Melissa peaked with 185 mph maximum sustained winds. The strongest Atlantic hurricane on record by way of maximum sustained winds is Hurricane Allen in 1980.
Allen’s maximum sustained wins were 190 mph.