Thanks to the brave crews of the 53rd Weather Reconnaissance Squadron and the NOAA Hurricane Hunters today for collecting this invaluable data. (Both were in the storm this morning, and given the severe turbulence, are backing each other up with radar obs, etc.)

The key caveat here is "observed", since planes often avoid sampling the worst part of the storm for safety reasons. I also allow for the possibility that I may have missed an observation somewhere. I will be doing more analysis this afternoon. Regardless, Melissa is one VERY intense hurricane.

Update #4: By the metric of observed maximum flight level winds at 700 mb, 10-sec average, preliminary data suggests that #Melissa is now the TOP Atlantic hurricane in the modern era of aircraft reconnaissance (since ~1977).

Update #3: #Melissa is now tied for 9th place for Atlantic hurricanes in the modern era, using the metric of observed maximum flight level winds @ 700 mb, 10-sec average.

By the metric of maximum sustained flight level winds, #Melissa, with 163 kt 700-mb 10-s flight level winds, has now eclipsed Milton, Doran, Hugo, Felix, and Ivan to move up to #9.

This list is not guaranteed to be exhaustive (a storm or two could be missing). Maximum flight level winds were obtained from Vortex Data Messages (VDMs).

Data source: Archive of VDMs from 1989-2022: verif.rap.ucar.edu/tcdata/vorte...

Update: The severe weather and flooding threats have passed. More light to moderate rains are expected, which should be beneficial to lawns and gardens that have gotten rather baked over the past week.

Update at 5:16 PM: Storms have passed through the Chattanooga area without too many impacts. The complex is propagating slowly south and a bit west from Sewanee through down through South Pittsburg and into N AL with heavy rain.