Don't Miss This Incredible Footage From Inside a Category Four Hurricane

There is no reason anyone would reasonably sail into a hurricane, but thankfully, nowadays, we have autonomous vehicles that can enter them to collect footage and data for scientific research. The results from the 2021 season were incredible, as this terrifying footage shows. 

Hurricane Sam was a major 2021 Cape Verde hurricane that thankfully stayed mostly away from land but still reached category four status with 155 mph winds. That didn't stop NOAA's Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory and Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory from teaming up with Saildrone, however, to send the Explorer SD 1045 into the eye of the storm, capturing valuable data and incredible footage as winds raged at about 100 mph and waves rolled above 40 feet, sometimes even flipping the device over. SD 1045 was about 450 nautical miles northeast of Puerto Rico when the storm passed over it. Findings from the device's data were presented at the American Geophysical Union’s annual meeting (SD 1045 is just one unit in an entire fleet monitoring many areas of the world's oceans), though scientists have only just begun to analyze the trove of data. Luckily for us, the footage is already out, so we can enjoy the awesome power of nature in one of its most powerful manifestations. Check out the video above.