Mr. Conor: I would like to add a few more observations to the comments below.
Hurricane Melissa had wind gusts of 252 mph measured at the surface as the storm continued to intensify just before landfall.
This is the worst-case scenario for Jamaica. pic.twitter.com/uIyyW9BD5u
— Colin McCarthy (@US_Stormwatch) October 28, 2025
This dropsonde runs through the South and Southeast. #melissaThe eyewall is the craziest dropsonde I’ve ever seen.
*Average* Winds at a minimum altitude of 150 meters are 188 knots/216 mph and maximum wind speeds are 219 knots/252 mph!!
A truly frightening historic hurricane is heading towards southwestern Jamaica pic.twitter.com/agYOOtAy9V
— Eric Webb (@webberweather) October 28, 2025
Yeah, I’m not gonna lie, Hurricane. #melissa This feels like the closest thing to the Atlantic version of Hurricane Haiyan I’ve seen #melissa (left), #kaien (2013) (right) pic.twitter.com/rAcZRr1GBK
— Eric Webb (@webberweather) October 28, 2025
Written by Jake Johnson, Senior Editor and Staff Writer at Common Dreams. Originally published in Common Dreams.
Hurricane Melissa made landfall in Jamaica on Tuesday as a Category 5 superstorm as the country braced for devastating impacts and humanitarian operations were mobilized urgently, with experts voicing horror at the latest climate-induced weather disaster.
“This is an extremely dangerous and life-threatening situation,” the National Hurricane Center said in an update after the storm made landfall.
Early video footage posted on social media shows the storm, the most powerful to hit the island and the third strongest ever to hit the Atlantic Ocean, wreaking havoc and destruction.
🇯🇲 | Video showing damage and flooding in the Black River area of Jamaica due to Hurricane Melissa. pic.twitter.com/k6RZDE9jdB
— Entredostv (@Entredostv1) October 28, 2025
Anne-Claire Fontan, a tropical cyclone expert at the World Meteorological Organization, told reporters: “We expect catastrophic conditions in Jamaica,” calling the hurricane the “storm of the century” for Jamaica. Melissa’s landfall is expected to result in extreme flooding, landslides, and other life-threatening impacts.
A slow-moving storm approached the island, bringing heavy rain and sustained winds of up to 185 mph and gusts exceeding 320 mph, leaving tens of thousands of Jamaicans without power. Storms like Melissa are why scientists are pushing to officially add Category 6 to the hurricane category.
“Melissa’s very small, compact eyewall hides unimaginable violence,” said Weather Channel hurricane expert Greg Postel. “There will be near continuous lightning with tornado-like wind speeds.”
Tonight Melissa gave one of the most powerful satellite presentations I’ve ever seen on Atlantic hurricanes. Perfect symmetry in all quadrants and satellite estimation techniques were utilized to the fullest, resulting in a Dvorak analysis of 871.1 mbar (reconnaissance team discovered the actual pressure for…) pic.twitter.com/nKKFbv4g7j
— Backpirch Weather (@BackpirchCrew) October 28, 2025
The International Federation of the Red Cross has announced that up to 1.5 million people in Jamaica – about half of the island’s population – are expected to be directly affected by Hurricane Melissa, the strongest storm on Earth this year.
“We’re OK at the moment, but we’re preparing for the worst,” Jamaican climate activist Tracy Edwards said on Tuesday. “We’re tired of these threats and don’t want to be in another hurricane.”
The International Organization for Migration warned that “the risk of flooding, landslides and widespread damage is very high,” meaning “many people are likely to be forced from their homes and in urgent need of shelter and relief.”
Melissa’s landfall came on the same day that United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres said the international community had failed to prevent global warming from exceeding a key threshold of 1.5 degrees Celsius “in the coming years.”
“This is the news I’ve been dreading my whole life,” meteorologist Eric Holthaus wrote on social media.
“Humanity has failed to avoid dangerous climate change,” he wrote. “We are now entering an era of overshoot. Our new goal is to prevent irreversible tipping points as much as possible.”
Climate experts said Hurricane Melissa bore unmistakable signs of a global crisis caused primarily by the burning of fossil fuels.
Jennifer Francis, a senior scientist at the Woodwell Climate Research Center, told the New York Times that climate warming is “clearly making this terrible disaster worse for Jamaica, Cuba, and the Bahamas.”
Akshay Deoras, a meteorologist at Britain’s University of Reading, told The Associated Press that the Atlantic Ocean is “very warm right now.”
“And it’s not just on the surface,” Deoras said. “The deep ocean is also unusually warm, providing a huge reservoir of energy for storms.”
Amira Odeh, a Caribbean activist with 350.org, warned in a statement on Tuesday that “what is happening in Jamaica is akin to climate injustice.”
“Every home without electricity, every flooded hospital, every family stranded by the storm is the result of political inaction,” Odeh said. “We cannot continue to lose Caribbean lives to the greed of the fossil fuel industry.”
“World leaders heading into COP30 need to understand that every delay, every new fossil fuel project means more lives lost,” Odeh added. “Jamaica is the latest warning, and Belem must be where the final change of direction takes place. The Caribbean is sounding the alarm again, and this time the world must listen.”
