THIS is the moment a US Air Force crew traversed the heart of Hurricane Melissa and found an eerie stillness within the deadly core of the monstrous storm.
Cockpit images from the “Teal 74” reconnaissance mission show an astonishing scene that few humans witness: towering walls of clouds, rising like cliffs into the sky, surrounding a perfectly clear, blue calm.
The video begins with the WC-130J’s propeller cutting through white fury, as the hurricane wall rises like a great fortress.
Seconds later, the chaos turns to silence as the eye of the storm is calm, still and surreal.
It stretches for miles, and sunlight floods the circular space like a stadium made by the sky.
Then, as the plane pitches, the scale of the beast becomes clear as walls of dense cloud curve into the sky in all directions, a tranquil void surrounded by destruction.
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“This is the clearest you can see in the Atlantic basin,” said a mission crew member, captured on video as Hurricane Melissa roared toward Category 5.
Within hours, Melissa exploded into a 175 mph monster (now the strongest Atlantic storm of 2025) and barreled into Jamaica in what could become the most devastating hurricane in the island’s history.
Forecasters warn that Melissa, tracking west at just 3 mph, will dump up to 40 inches of rain on parts of Jamaica.
It is expected to cause “catastrophic and life-threatening flash flooding and numerous landslides,” according to the US National Hurricane Center (NHC).
Desmond McKenzie, Jamaica’s local government minister, said: “Many of these communities will not survive this flood.
“Kingston is low, extremely low…No community in Kingston is immune from flooding.”
Mandatory evacuations are underway in all coastal regions and Prime Minister Andrew Holness has urged citizens to act quickly.
He said: “Now is the time to secure your home, check your roof, windows and surroundings… If you live in a flood-prone area, take protective measures and have an evacuation plan ready.”
Melissa’s slow movement and explosive power have astonished experts: its winds doubled in just two days as it hit the warm Caribbean.
130 miles south of Kingston on Sunday night, the eye of the hurricane was fixed on the southern coast of Jamaica, and forecasters predicted it would make landfall early Tuesday.
The government closed airports, opened emergency shelters and put hospitals on emergency mode.
For now, the storm chasers aboard the “Teal 74” are among the few who have glimpsed the calm within the chaos.
Reconnaissance missions like theirs provide real-time wind and pressure data that can improve forecast accuracy by up to 20 percent, according to peer-reviewed studies in the Journal of Atmospheric Sciences.
And on the ground, the tension is just as thick.
Along Kingston’s waterfront, fishermen and merchants tied up boats and shutters as the first drops of rain arrived.
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“She wants to stay and visit Jamaica for three days, why?” said fisherman Clive Davis, shaking his head at the darkening horizon.
“We can’t fight nature, right?”
