"Hurricane Melissa was already one of the most powerful hurricanes ever recorded in the Atlantic Oceanand now scientists have confirmed a new way it neared superlative status. Newly released data show that Hurricane Melissa produced a wind gust of 252 miles per hourjust 1 mph shy of the fastest wind gust ever measured on Earth, according to the World Meteorological Organization, and 4 mph faster than the most powerful gust ever measured in a tropical cyclone at sea."
"The previous record-holding storm, 2010's Typhoon Megi, was located in the Pacific Ocean, where warmer waters typically permit the most powerful tropical cyclones to grow a little stronger than those in the Atlantic Ocean. It's actually quite amazing to see a sounding that breaks that record, says Holger Vomel, an atmospheric scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colo., who worked with National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration meteorologists to verify the measurement was not the result of an instrument error."
Hurricane Melissa produced a verified wind gust of 252 miles per hour, marking one of the strongest gusts recorded in the Atlantic. The gust was one mile per hour shy of the fastest recorded on Earth and four miles per hour faster than the previous tropical-cyclone-at-sea record from 2010's Typhoon Megi in the Pacific. Scientists verified the gust with dropsonde measurements and reviewers from the National Center for Atmospheric Research and NOAA confirmed it was not an instrument error. Gusts are transient bursts of wind and can far exceed the one-minute sustained winds used to determine Saffir-Simpson categories.
Read at www.scientificamerican.com
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