Second pass through Hurricane Melissa entering from the southwest side. Passed NOAA in the eye wall as they headed outbound for home. Obviously a very powerful storm but a relatively straightforward one on this flight. Much less nasty meso activity than 36 hours ago.

A thread of videos from today’s flight into Hurricane Melissa In this first one we are entering from the southeast just after sunrise and the bright arc on the far northwest eye wall is the light just beginning to make it over the top from behind us.

Third pass through Melissa. GoPro in side window as different camera looking forward shooting in ultra high res 8k. Not sure when that might get processed as the file turned out ridiculous. Barely had HD space for it and MacBook Pro promptly chocked when I tried to edit it

Fourth pass through Melissa this morning, another side view due to my hairbrained attempt to shoot 8k video out the front.

Fifth and final pass through Hurricane Melissa for our crew today. Just after noon entering from the NW corner exiting SE.

The sea surface is always interesting in the eye with waves going different directions

Another view looking down in the eye… got a nice swirl of clouds going on

Uncropped and higher res version of the first pass through Melissa yesterday morning.

And proper HD of the final pass

If you look closely you can literally see the hurricane rotating in the video 🤯

The hum of those big turboprops is reassuring.

I commend you ALL for doing such a risky job. Praying for everyone in the path. 🙏

I can't recall seeing clouds quite like that before. They look like sheep's wool, they're so compact. Stunning videos! Thanks for posting them. Stay safe out there.

Beautiful eye but praying for Jamaica!

what's meso activity?

Basically like water spouts/tornados embedded in the eye wall. Much tighter wrapped winds and even more water. Dangerous to fly through

thank you

Is there some sort of air traffic control in there or you you just wave as you go bye?

Why does the plane keep yelling altitude

Incredible

❤️👍

I respect you all for flying into that beast. What a wild ride!

WOW

@hurricanemelissa you would think to geo engineering schitt, you could also drop some kind of gas bombs in the middle to dissolve it! THEY love land destruction n land grabs

Looks so beautiful, and yet it will probably kill dozens! Even after all the precautions and evacuations...

So amazing and powerfull!!! But pray for Jamaica

FFS be safe

Thanks for sharing these neat videos!

@grok why hurricane is not affecting the plane that got in.. how this is done

@forecaster25 @thenewarea51

makes sense, when melissa was rapidly intensifying those mesovorticies were spinning so rapidly and violently to induce those rapid pressure falls. now it’s more steady state incredible power

Is this heaven or hell? Equally terrifying and breathtaking.