ROCHESTER, N.Y. – We are revisiting an extreme weather event that occurred four and a half months ago. Hurricane Melissa, which moved across the island of Jamaica in October 2025. Melissa reached Category 5 intensity, which is the highest rating on the Saffir–Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale. Tragically, 45 people lost their lives as a direct result of the storm.
Images from the aftermath revealed widespread devastation, particularly across the western half of the island. This damage resembled that what is more typically associated with a powerful tornado. Melissa underwent rapid intensification shortly before landfall. While several atmospheric factors contributed to this strengthening, exceptionally warm waters in the Caribbean Sea played a significant role.
This past week, the National Hurricane Center completed its routine post-season analysis and released its final report. As part of that review, meteorologists revised Melissa’s peak sustained wind speeds upward by 5 miles per hour. While seemingly modest, this adjustment raises the storm’s maximum sustained winds to 190 miles per hour. That places Hurricane Melissa in a tie with Hurricane Allen (1980) as the strongest hurricane ever recorded in the Atlantic basin. Reliable Atlantic hurricane records span approximately 175 years.
Melissa’s track carried it over Jamaica, across eastern Cuba, and eventually toward the Bahamas. Fortunately, the hurricane remained offshore of the United States mainland.
During the storm, the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration’s Hurricane Hunter aircraft conducted multiple reconnaissance missions into the eyewall. These aircraft deploy specialized instruments known as dropsondes, which collect atmospheric data as they descend through the storm. One such measurement recorded a wind gust exceeding 250 miles per hour above the surface. This is an extraordinary observation that highlights the extreme intensity of this historic hurricane.
First Alert Weather In-Depth: Hurricane Melissa tied for strongest Atlantic hurricane in recorded history WHEC.com.
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