In the video taken on Monday, October 27, a huge mass of clouds is seen swirling around the hurricane’s “eye.” Sometimes the clouds look white.
‘Hurricane Hunters’ capture amazing views inside Hurricane Melissa
The U.S. Air Force Reserve’s Hurricane Hunters squadron flew to Hurricane Melissa to collect data for the National Hurricane Center.
Breathtaking video from the eye of deadly Hurricane Melissa has emerged from a U.S. Air Force Reserve Hurricane Hunter flight, clearly showing the inner workings that turned it into one of the most powerful storms in Atlantic Hurricane Basin history.
In the video taken on Monday, Oct. 27, a mass of clouds swirls around the hurricane’s “eye.” Sometimes the clouds catch the sunlight and look bright and white. The relatively calm “eye” gives the hurricane its structure and intensity. A storm’s strongest winds reside in a ring immediately around the center known as the eyewall.
During many storms, hurricane hunters refer to the view inside the eye surrounding the aircraft as the “stadium effect.” But hurricane scientist Andy Hazelton said that when he flew into the eye on the morning of Oct. 27, Melissa’s “eye” appeared more cylindrical than the “classic stadium effect,” forcing him to tilt his camera to capture the bright blue patch of sky at the top of the column.
It was a “wild ride” and the first time he had encountered a Category 5 hurricane, Hazelton wrote in an X post on the plane Monday morning. “It was definitely the most confusing situation I’ve ever been in,” said Hazelton, an associate scientist at the University of Miami.
What’s happening at the center of Hurricane Melissa?
Melissa’s eye is estimated to be 16 miles in diameter. The effects of surrounding activity can be seen in the overnight changes in a hurricane’s wind speed and pressure measurements.
Maximum wind speeds around the eye on Oct. 27 were estimated at 175 mph at the surface and up to 315 mph, according to the National Hurricane Center. By 10 a.m. on October 28, when Hurricane Melissa made landfall on Jamaica’s south coast, maximum sustained wind speeds had increased to 185 mph and gusts had increased. The atmospheric pressure plummeted from 901 millibars to 892 millibars.
Warmer air at the center of a hurricane lowers pressure and accelerates the spiral cycle, creating even lower pressure and faster winds. Barometric pressure is a measure of the pressure in Earth’s atmosphere, and the lower the pressure, the more powerful hurricanes will be.
The 892 millibar reading was one of the lowest on record in the Atlantic Ocean, according to data from Phil Klotzbach, a senior hurricane researcher at Colorado State University.
The sustained winds and gusts are much stronger at the flight levels where reconnaissance aircraft fly, so the Hurricane Center is very concerned about the potential for strong winds to develop in Jamaica’s higher elevations.
Turbulence around the eye occurred during a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reconnaissance flight on the morning of Oct. 27, forcing the flight to end its eye search earlier than scheduled, the National Hurricane Center reported.
Mechanism of the hurricane’s “eye”
A hurricane begins as a cluster of thunderstorms that develops over warm oceans. As the eye forms, warm, moist air swirls around the eye, increasing in speed as it approaches the center. At the same time, air is rising outside the eyewall in a band around the thunderstorm.
When thunderstorm activity is organized in a spiral band, lower-level air collects toward the center and then moves upward. When you reach the top of a storm, some of the air flows outward and some of it falls into the center, releasing heat energy and clearing your eyes.
A member of the Air Force Reserve’s 53rd Weather Reconnaissance Squadron, known online only as the anonymous “Dangerous Tropical Cowboy,” also shared videos and tidbits about the “Hurricane Hunters” flight in an Oct. 27 X post.
Hurricane Melissa, which exploded in strength over the weekend, is on its way to making hurricane history. On October 27, the hurricane strengthened again and approached the coast of Jamaica, surprising hurricane scientists.
Meteorologist Jeff Masters wrote on October 27 that Melissa beat Typhoon Lagatha’s 165 mph winds and central pressure of 910 millibars in the western Pacific Ocean, making it the world’s strongest tropical cyclone in 2025.
The average diameter of Hurricane Melissa’s wind field, which includes tropical storm force winds, was about 347 miles, according to a USA TODAY analysis of the National Hurricane Center’s forecast advisory as of 11 p.m. Oct. 27. The average diameter of a hurricane’s wind field is only about 84.75 miles.
Hurricanes that caused rain in Jamaica’s history
Forecasts of several feet of rain during Jamaica’s fall storms are rare, but not unheard of.
2010 – Hurricane Nicole was comparable, but shorter, dumping 37.42 inches of rain in five days on Belair, Jamaica, the Hurricane Center reported. Most of the island received between 1 and 2 feet of rain during the period. More than 13 people were killed and damage to the country’s infrastructure was reported to be around $235 million.
2001 – According to the Hurricane Center, during the last few days of October and the first few days of November 2001, slow-moving Hurricane Michelle brought widespread heavy rain to Central America and Jamaica. At Comfort Castle, Jamaica, the 10-day precipitation total reached 37.44 inches. Jamaica reported two deaths and Cuba reported five deaths.
1963 – Hurricane Flora reportedly dumped 60 inches of rain on Silver Hill, Jamaica, and 100.39 inches on Santiago de Cuba, Cuba, according to a historical report by NOAA meteorologist David Ross.
1909 – Historical records, including monthly surveys by the U.S. Weather Bureau, show 135 inches of rain was recorded in Silver Hill over an eight-day period from November 4 to November 11.
Dinah Boyles Pulver, national correspondent for USA TODAY, has been writing about hurricanes, tornadoes and severe weather for more than 30 years. Contact dpulver@usatoday.com or @dinahvp on Bluesky or dinahvp.77 on X or Signal.
