Hurricane Melissa is set to batter Jamaica and Cuba later this week. Melissa is the third Category 5 hurricane of the 2025 Atlantic hurricane season. It's only one of two Atlantic hurricane seasons to produce three or more Category 5 hurricanes (the other being 2005). The 2005 season produced Emily, Katrina, Rita and Wilma. Melissa is currently producing winds of 160mph, and is set to continue strengthing. It is predicted that Melissa will be the strongest hurricane to make landfall in Jamaica in recorded history. Once Melissa leaves Jamaica, it is expected for it to make landfall in Cuba just later hour. Melissa is also predicted to impact The Bahamas and Bermuda later in the week. Although it's not expected to make landfall, high surf is expected along the East Coast between Wednesday and Saturday.

Edited Tuesday at 17:291 day by DanielCarey

Curious thing about the cat 5s so far this season; the other 2, Erin and Humberto, have been two of the least-damaging and destructive Cat 5 hurricanes in recent history. Normally these storms find land at some point (even if the Category 5 title is just them at their peak and they normally hit at a lower intensity, it's still destructive), the other two managed to wind a way through the Atlantic such that they never hit a thing (admittedly the precursor systems of Erin caused some destructive flooding in Cape Verde but that was before it organised and got given a name). Humberto especially, huge powerful storm, hit nothing.

Melissa of course looks potentially very dangerous, that track puts me in mind of Hurricane Matthew (2016) which was very destructive, though largely because it hit Haiti which always suffers bad in casualty numbers when it gets hit by storms due to its poverty. Hitting Jamaica at near enough full strength isn't going to be fun for them and it's a very slow-moving one too.

Makes me think that the warmer ocean is making it easier for even storms far out at sea to reach high intensities. Matthew came after the Atlantic hadn't seen a Cat 5 for nearly 10 years, this is now potentially record-breaking if there are any at all next year - we're now at 4 years in a row with Category 5 storms (and if you look at how many Cat 4s there were in the insanely active 2020/2021 seasons, that seems an almost arbitrary cut of the record, Iota and Sam were on the cusp of being Cat 5) and indeed, 2024 and 2025 have had multiple.

Was only last month that a huge typhoon raged through where I used to live in South China too.

This is gonna be brutal for Jamaica. Slow moving is always very bad news for people in the path of the storm but it does maybe buy them a few more hours of preparation and in an evac, every extra second helps

Expect this to cause some fun weather systems for Europe in November.

Hope now is that it sticks to its track and doesn’t pull no funny business. Haiti is right there and any movement to the right is gonna kill thousands, it’s gonna be bad enough there as is

A friend of mine is originally from the costal Carolinas and has said since like Feb that this year would be a bad one coz of sea temps in the gulf and Caribbean. They remained high through the winter and didn’t really cool off. And this is becoming a concerning pattern. The general rule is warmer winter ocean temps brings trouble in the hurricane season. Sadly I think this will only continue to get worse with global warming. We just have to hope for a solid dip in sea temps this winter to give everyone a respite

Melissa is now at 180mph winds with a barometric pressure of 896 millibars. Sixth most intense Atlantic hurricane on record.

@Iz 🌟 @Silas

Melissa is now the third-strongest Atlantic hurricane on record. Only 2005's Hurricane Wilma and 1988's Hurricane Gilbert were stronger.

Hurricane Melissa officially makes landfall in Jamaica with sustained wind speeds of 185mph. Tied with the 1935 Labor Day Hurricane and 2019's Hurricane Dorian as the strongest-landfalling Atlantic hurricane on record. It also marks the strongest-landfalling hurricane in Jamaican history.

Edited Tuesday at 17:091 day by DanielCarey

Gilbert also a major hurricane that hit Jamaica, though not at the strength Melissa has. Looks incredibly scary for them.

Melissa is now a category three hurricane, according to a new update from the US National Hurricane Center.

Maximum sustained windspeeds are currently 125mph (205km/h), a large drop from the 185mph when it made landfall a few hours ago.

It warns that more "catastrophic" flooding is likely in Jamaica, with some areas expecting 30 inches (76cm) of rain.

The latest bulletin calls for Jamaicans to remain inside shelters until the storm is fully passed.

It also calls on residents of Cuba, where up to 25 inches of rain is predicted, to "seek safe shelter immediately".

In the Bahamas, where Melissa is due to arrive in a few hours, "preparations to protect life and property should be rushed to completion".

The remnants of Hurricane Melissa are expected to impact Ireland and the UK on Monday 3rd November.

Edited yesterday at 00:501 day by DanielCarey

19 hours ago, HeadlessJockey501 said:

Melissa is now a category three hurricane, according to a new update from the US National Hurricane Center.

Maximum sustained windspeeds are currently 125mph (205km/h), a large drop from the 185mph when it made landfall a few hours ago.

It warns that more "catastrophic" flooding is likely in Jamaica, with some areas expecting 30 inches (76cm) of rain.

The latest bulletin calls for Jamaicans to remain inside shelters until the storm is fully passed.

It also calls on residents of Cuba, where up to 25 inches of rain is predicted, to "seek safe shelter immediately".

In the Bahamas, where Melissa is due to arrive in a few hours, "preparations to protect life and property should be rushed to completion".

Melissa has weakened to Category 2, and is now headed towards The Bahamas.