[kellyhound]

Hurricane Sam is the strongest storm of the 2021 Atlantic hurricane season so far, though it's fortunately not threatening to make landfall. While we've seen Sam churning from orbit, we now have some extraordinary new footage from inside the Category 4 storm.

Autonomous ocean vehicle company Saildrone is working with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to monitor the storm from an unusual vantage point. On Thursday, Saildrone shared a video taken by its Saildrone Explorer SD 1045.

The video shows heaving waves at stomach-turning angles as witnessed by the drone ship. In a statement, Saildrone described it as "the first video footage gathered by an uncrewed surface vehicle (USV) from inside a major hurricane barreling across the Atlantic Ocean."

The drone ship sports a special "hurricane wing" that allows it to deal with the whipping winds of the storm.

The drone isn't just surfing for the fun of it. "New data from saildrones and other uncrewed systems that NOAA is using will help us better predict the forces that drive hurricanes and be able to warn communities earlier," NOAA scientist Greg Foltz said.

[Shadolife]

Man, you could modify that baby to take a person on board and it looks sturdy enough, I'd fkn do it!

[HYPRTCKR]

~ THANX