An intrepid team of hurricane hunters was mercilessly tossed by rocky turbulence while flying right into the eye of Hurricane Melissa, according to wild footage shared by the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Hurricane Hunters were forced to cut short their reconnaissance mission into the Category 5 Hurricane Melissa Monday morning, Oct. 27.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is tracking Hurricane Melissa with forecasts predicting a Category 5 storm with catastrophic winds, flash flooding and a storm surge targeting landfall in Jamaica Tuesday. Other locations of ...

A U.S. Air Force WC-130J Weatherbird from the 53rd WRS, as well as NOAA aircraft, have had to abandon planned missions early due to the strength of Hurricane Melissa. Weather reconnaissance aircraft have been operating at an extraordinarily high tempo in recent days to gather data on Hurricane Melissa as it threatens to devastate communities

On October 27, as Hurricane Melissa reached Category 5 strength over the Caribbean, a research aircraft operated by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) entered the storm’s eyewall.

Hurricane Melissa was no longer on tracking maps by early Nov. 1, the first day of the final month of hurricane season.

By November, tropical activity is typically on the decline. But that doesn’t mean Florida’s in the clear just yet.

Hurricane Melissa has been an extraordinary storm, even among the many massive, fast-growing, devastating cyclones that have been erupting in the Atlantic Ocean in recent years.

Kermit is one of two WP-3D Orion turboprop airplanes that NOAA operates, often alongside the Air Force Reserve’s 53rd Weather Reconnaissance Squadron. Logging its first hurricane mission in 1976, Kermit is older than many of the people who fly it. On its belly are the names of over 100 hurricanes that the craft has flown into.