Air Force Videos Capture the Eye of Hurricane Melissa as Catastrophic Storm Hits Jamaica

Melissa, now a Category 5 hurricane, made landfall in Jamaica this afternoon as the strongest storm in the nation’s recorded history. At 1:00 p.m. ET, the storm was hammering the island with 185-mile-per-hour (295-kilometer-per-hour) winds and torrential rain as its eye moved over the southwestern coast, according to the National Hurricane Center (NHC).

On Monday, the 53rd Weather Reconnaissance Squadron—a team of U.S. Air Force hurricane hunters—flew into this historic storm to collect…