Hurricane Melissa Devastates Jamaica, Strikes Cuba

Hurricane Melissa explosively intensified over anomalously warm Caribbean waters into a Category 5 storm with sustained winds near 185 mph and struck Jamaica as one of the most powerful Atlantic landfalls on record. It later made a second landfall in eastern Cuba as a Category 3 before weakening, but remained life‑threatening. The storm prompted mass evacuations across eastern Cuba, left hundreds of thousands without power in Jamaica, produced dangerous storm surge and flooding, and has been blamed for multiple deaths across the Caribbean. Scientists said very warm ocean temperatures and favorable upper‑level dynamics drove Melissa’s rapid intensification, a pattern they say is being amplified by climate change. U.S. authorities updated travel advisories for Jamaica and warned the Bahamas as the system moved northward. Hurricane Hunter crews recorded extreme turbulence that forced at least one WC‑130 mission to return to base for inspection.