406 km/h: Hurricane Melissa’s confirmed wind gust sets record
Hurricane Hunters measured the gust while flying through Hurricane Melissa’s eye on Oct. 28
Meteorologists confirmed this week that a wind gust recorded in Hurricane Melissa’s eyewall was the strongest ever measured by a Hurricane Hunters tool known as a dropsonde.
The Category 5 storm devastated Jamaica when it slammed into the western half of the island at peak intensity in late October.
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Historic wind gust recorded by dropsonde
NOAA Hurricane Hunters released a dropsonde into Hurricane Melissa’s powerful eyewall on the morning of Oct. 28, 2025, just several hours before the storm struck Jamaica at full strength.
The instrument recorded an astounding wind gust of 406 km/h (252 mph) a few hundred metres above the ocean’s surface. Experts with the U.S. National Science Foundation National Center for Atmospheric Research (NSF NCAR) confirmed the validity of the measurement this week.
A dropsonde is a small sensor released from the belly of an aircraft that takes crucial weather observations as it falls toward the ocean. Dropsondes collect information about temperature, humidity, and air pressure. They also take advantage of GPS technology to calculate wind speed and wind direction.
Melissa’s gust edges out a super typhoon’s record
Hurricane Melissa’s maximum sustained winds at surface level reached 295 km/h (185 mph) at landfall, making it one of the most intense hurricanes ever observed at landfall anywhere in the world. Surface winds are notably lower than winds higher up due to friction.
Officials with NSF NCAR say that the new dropsonde record edges out the previous all-time dropsonde wind gust of 399 km/h (248 mph) measured during Typhoon Megi in October 2010.
The all-time highest wind gust ever directly measured by a surface-based weather instrument was a 407 km/h (253 mph) wind gust during Tropical Cyclone Olivia in April 1996. An anemometer on Barrow Island, Australia, recorded the historic wind at an elevation of 64 metres (210 ft.).
Header image courtesy of NOAA/NASA.