Hurricane Melissa of category 5 hit the coast of Jamaica near New Hope with sustained winds up to 295 km/has reported by National Hurricane Center. The landfall by Melissa is probably the most violent recorded in the Atlantic Oceanleaving 240,000 people without electricity and threatening around one and a half million people according to the Red Cross estimate.
Despite its power, the storm moved across the Caribbean Sea relatively slowly (around 10 km/h), taking several hours before hitting the island directly: usually, in fact, the warmer the surface waters are, the more rapidly the hurricane can proceed.
In a matter of hours, Melissa became thestrongest hurricane of 2025, one of the most intense recorded in the Caribbean Sea and certainly the more violent that ever hit Jamaica in the instrumental era. Now the Atlantic cyclone will head towards Cubawhere it will be downgraded to Category 4 while retaining much of its violence.
The damage caused so far by Hurricane Melissa, the strongest of 2025
The landfall of Melissa, that is, the moment the hurricane made landfall, was the most violent ever recorded in the Atlantic Ocean: until now the record was held by the “Labor Day” hurricane of 1935.
Authorities have confirmed that at least 1.5 million Jamaicans are at riskwhile “all possible precautions have been taken to ensure that all citizens are safe or in certified shelters with sufficient supplies to weather the storm.” More than 240,000 people they remained without electricity and at least the 26% of mobile networks results offlinemainly due to power outages.
Unlike this year’s other two Category 5 hurricanes, Humberto and Erin, Melissa has not weakened over the past few hours and, instead, has strengthened, with sustained winds now forecast to 297 km/h. According to the latest updates from NOAA, Melissa could become the second strongest hurricane in the history of the Atlantic Ocean, confirming itself as the worst ever recorded in the Caribbean Sea. The minimum central pressure, however, dropped to 892 millibarswhich makes Melissa the third “deepest” hurricane ever observed in the Atlantic, with a lethal potential significantly higher than theHurricane Katrina of 2025 orHurricane Beryl of 2024.
The local authorities have alerted the population by defining the Wind speed ‘life-threatening’ and requiring inhabitants to take refuge in reinforced concrete structures far from the coasts or hills, to avoid being overwhelmed by storm surges or possible landslides.
Where Hurricane Melissa is headed now: the trajectory of the next few days
Melissa is currently moving in north-east direction at a speed of 14 km/h. Over the next few hours, the hurricane will hit the eastern part of Cuba, also causing damage in neighboring Caribbean countries, including Haiti, Dominican Republic and Bahamaswhere however it will not touch the ground, as visible in the image below and in the live tracker.
In general, the entire Caribbean coast is on alert: a Cuba a hurricane warning is in effect for the provinces of Granma, Santiago de Cuba, Guantanamo and Holguin and more than 600,000 people were evacuated for Melissa’s arrival, scheduled for tomorrow. Even at Bahamas and at Turks and Caicos Islands a warning has been issued for potential damage caused by catastrophic winds and flash floods, while ad Haiti and in the Dominican Republic a tropical storm warning is in effect.
Why did Hurricane Melissa become so violent in such a short time
Over the course of this past weekend, Melissa stopped by in just 18 hours from “simple” tropical stormwith winds of around 100 km/h, a category 4 hurricanewith sustained winds of 250 km/h, and then reaching category 5 (the maximum on the Saffir-Simpson scale). An impressive growth rate that led Melissa to become one of the most violent cyclones ever observed in the Caribbean area since records began 174 years ago.
The main reason, as can be understood, lies in the high surface temperatures in the Caribbean Seawhich currently reach 33°C, at least 1.5°C above average expected at the end of October. The deviation in the cyclone’s path, which took it north before entering the Gulf of Mexico, caused the depression to feed on the enormous thermal energy of the Caribbean Sea. Added to this is a particularly humid air, which made Melissa dangerous not only due to the very strong winds but also due to thehuge amount of rain which has proven capable of releasing, with peaks recorded so far of over 760 millimeters in the space of just a few hours.
In short, Jamaica found itself “in the wrong place at the wrong time” since it lies right along the trajectory of theeye of the storm at the moment this is more intense. To these elements are added the relative compactness of the cyclone (which allows it to discharge its energy in a relatively contained area) and the slowness with which his eye proceeds (which on the one hand allowed the population to evacuate their homes in time, on the other it ensures that when it passes the hurricane discharges its energy for a longer time).
