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Footage has shown US airmen flying into the heart of Hurricane Milton in a Cold War-era hurricane-hunting propeller plane codenamed Miss Piggy.
Documents and equipment crash onto the floor of the fuselage and the crew struggle to remain seated as the plane is thrashed by intense wind and rain.
“Good god,” one of the men says as he looks out of the window at the raging gales.
The men are officers of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Commissioned (NOAA), the smallest of the eight uniformed services of the United States.
Hurricane Milton is currently heading towards central Florida’s western coast, where its outer bands have already begun impacting the state.
Tornado warnings have been issued as the storm is expected to make full landfall later on Wednesday night.
It is forecast to double in size by the time it hits the US, meaning that its disastrous impacts will be felt across a much larger area, although it is expected to downgrade from a Category 5 storm to a Category 4.
Florida officials continue to urge residents to evacuate.
Mandatory evacuation zones are in place in the state’s coastal zones. With more than 5.5 million people were urged to leave, it is one of the largest evacuations in Florida’s history.
“Do not hesitate,” Colin Burns, a deputy incident commander in Pasco County, said. “If you can get out, get out.”
Jane Castor, the Tampa mayor, told CNN: “I can say without any dramatisation whatsoever, if you choose to stay in one of those evacuation areas, you’re gonna die.”
Joe Biden, who has postponed a trip to Germany to monitor the storm response, said Florida’s evacuation orders were a “matter of life or death”.
“I’ve urged everyone, everyone currently located in Hurricane Milton’s path to listen to local officials and follow safety instructions,” the US president said.
He also called on airlines to provide “as much service as possible” and “not engage in price gouging”.
The US’s National Hurricane Centre said Hurricane Milton, which currently has windspeeds of around 160mph, could be “one of the most destructive hurricanes on record”.
The Foreign Office has updated its travel advice, warning of the risk of “life-threatening storm surge and high winds” in Florida.
It told travellers to monitor the National Hurricane Centre’s website, follow instructions from local officials and check with airlines about possible travel disruptions.
The state of Georgia has also declared a state of emergency in anticipation of the effects of Hurricane Milton.
The NOAA flies a fleet of “Hurricane Hunters” into storms to take readings that help forecasters, scientists and disaster planners make accurate predictions about intense weather systems.
Miss Piggy is one of two of the NOAA’s WP-3D Orion planes, aircraft introduced in the 1970s to hunt Soviet submarines.
The planes are powered by turboprop engines, which are more efficient at the low airspeeds needed to fly through Hurricanes than modern jet engines.
