Hurricane Matthew: Watch as hurricane hunters fly plane into eye of storm

This footage is not for the weak of heart.

Hurricane hunters from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) took a very turbulent flight into the heart of deadly Hurricane Matthew Thursday for a first-hand look at the eye of the storm.

READ MORE: Hurricane Matthew hammers Florida coast as death toll rises in Haiti

The footage shows crews flying through Matthew’s eyewall and into the eye of the storm. Although Matthew weakened to a Category 3 storm early Friday morning, it was still ranked as a Category 4 – with winds between 209 to 251 km/hr on the ground – when the hurricane hunters flew through it.

Hurricane hunters and NOAA’s specially equipped aircraft play an important role in hurricane forecasting and research. According to NOAA, research collected during these difficult flights help forecasters make more accurate predictions and provide better insight into understanding how these storms develop. The specialized WP-3D Orion four-engine turboprop aircraft measures hurricane wind speed, temperature, humidity, air pressure and rainfall.

READ MORE: Why does Hurricane Matthew keep getting stronger?

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Hurricane Matthew spun dangerously close to Florida’s Atlantic coast Friday morning, scraping the shore with howling wind and heavy rain that left more than 476,000 without power.

Matthew was downgraded to a Category 3 hurricane overnight with the strongest winds of 200 km/h just offshore as the storm pushed north, threatening hundreds of miles of coastline in Florida, Georgia and South Carolina. A 170 km/h gust was recorded in Cape Canaveral.

WATCH: Hurricane Matthew leaves at least 280 dead in Haiti as death toll rises

1:17 Hurricane Matthew: at least 280 dead in Haiti as death toll rises

More than 1.5 million people in Florida were asked to evacuate ahead of Matthew, the first major hurricane to hit the state in 11 years.

As of 8 a.m. ET Friday, the hurricane was hugging the coast of central Florida, according to the National Hurricane Center. Matthew was centred about 60 km north-northeast of Cape Canaveral and moving north-northwest around 20 km/h. After Florida, forecasters said Matthew would probably hug the coast of Georgia and South Carolina over the weekend before veering out to sea — perhaps even looping back toward Florida in the middle of next week as a tropical storm.

The storm is responsible for more than 280 deaths in the Caribbean.

— With files from The Associated Press