An instrument dropped from a Hurricane Hunter plane during Melissa measured the highest winds on record.
A weather instrument dropped from a Hurricane Hunter plane during Hurricane Melissa measured the highest winds on record for such an instrument.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. The 252-mph wind gust measured by the dropsonde in Hurricane Melissa was recorded at 827 feet 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.. 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 isSounds like there's some level of verification now that the dropsonde I processed on the Melissa flight on 10/28 right before landfall is now the strongest wind ever recorded by a dropsonde."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.
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