Hurricane Melissa intensified into a powerful Category 5 storm early Monday, prompting warnings of intense flooding and devastation across the Caribbean, including Jamaica, Haiti and the southeastern Bahamas, the US National Hurricane Center (CNH) said.
Jamaica is directly in the path of the hurricane, just as it reaches its maximum strength.
Hurricane Melissa is the strongest storm of the 2025 Atlantic hurricane season, said Global News Chief Meteorologist Anthony Farnell. “It reached Category 5 early Monday morning and continues to intensify,” he added.
As of Monday afternoon, Melissa is officially the strongest storm of the entire year.
“Unfortunately, there is almost zero chance that Melissa will miss Jamaica,” Farnell said.
The NHC is urging Jamaicans to seek shelter as destructive hurricane conditions are expected to begin late Monday or early Tuesday.
Maximum storm surge heights could reach three to four meters above ground level, the agency added. As of Monday morning, swirling winds extended up to 315 kilometers from the eye of the storm.
Melissa is expected to bring between 38 and 76 centimeters of rain in some parts of Jamaica, with up to 102 centimeters possible in some areas. Catastrophic flash flooding and numerous landslides are also likely, along with severe infrastructure damage to major roads and highways that Farnell said could lead to weeks-long closures.
“The only good news is that the latest track brings those strongest winds (over 250 km/h) and the worst storm surges (3 to 4 meters) to the west, to a less populated part of Jamaica,” he added.
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Wind speeds are expected to be 30 percent higher in mountainous regions. On Monday morning, maximum sustained onshore winds were around 260 kilometers per hour.
Jamaica’s two major airports closed over the weekend, including Sangster International Airport in Montego Bay and Norman Manley International Airport in the capital Kingston, where hurricane conditions could last up to 24 hours.
The roads leading to and from Kingston Airport are especially exposed to strong winds and waves.
Jamaica’s Minister of Local Government and Community Development, Desmond McKenzie, said Sunday night that 218 people were already in some of the country’s 881 shelters. NBC News reported.
In Jamaica, more than 650 shelters were activated. Officials said warehouses across the island were well stocked and thousands of food packages were pre-positioned for quick distribution if needed.
The persistent storm will leave little time for recovery, Jamaican authorities warned.
“With the slow movement of this system, it doesn’t allow for recovery. It will sit there, pouring water while barely moving and that is a major challenge that we need to be aware of,” said Evan Thompson, senior director of the Jamaica Meteorological Service.
Projected path of Hurricane Melissa through the Caribbean.
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“Melissa’s pending impact is not something we as a country should take lightly,” McKenzie he said on saturdayadding that it is the responsibility of the government to ensure that Jamaicans are protected and comply with emergency orders.
Catastrophic and life-threatening flash floods are forecast to hit Haiti and the Dominican Republic by midweek, the NHC warned. Meanwhile, Cuba is bracing for heavy rains, flooding and landslides.
The southeastern Bahamas and Turks and Caicos Islands are also on high alert, with hurricane watches in effect.
Haitian authorities say three people have already died as a result of the hurricane and five others were injured due to the collapse of a wall.
Workers board up storefronts ahead of Hurricane Melissa’s expected landfall in Kingston, Jamaica, Sunday, Oct. 26, 2025.
(AP Photo/Matías Delacroix)
The storm damaged nearly 200 homes in the Dominican Republic over the weekend, knocking out water supply systems and affecting more than half a million customers.
Farnell noted that this will be the first Category 4 or stronger storm to hit the island in the modern era. “The fact that the storm is coming from the south makes it even more destructive,” he warned, although Jamaica’s high terrain will force the storm to weaken “significantly.”
Melissa is the 13th named storm of the Atlantic hurricane season, which runs from June 1 to November 30.
The U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration had forecast an above-normal season with between 13 and 18 named storms.
— With files from The Associated Press
© 2025 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
