Hurricane Melissa, which is stronger than Hurricane Katrina, is set to bring catastrophic winds, flash flooding and high storm surges to the island of Jamaica.

Article first published: Wednesday, Oct. 29, 2025, 5 a.m. ET

Powerful Category 5 Hurricane Melissa made landfall in Jamaica on Tuesday afternoon as one of the most powerful hurricanes on record, according to the National Hurricane Center.

The NHC predicts that Melissa could become a major hurricane as it skirts around Jamaica early next week. Here's how it will unfold.

Melissa is an “extremely dangerous” Category 3 hurricane as it closes in on Cuba after the storm made a historic landfall in Jamaica as one of the strongest Atlantic hurricanes in history. Follow for live updates.

The National Hurricane Center is keeping a close eye on Tropical Storm Melissa, which is expected to rapidly intensify into a major hurricane.

Lightning flashes in the eyewall of Category 5 Melissa are a marker of how strong the storm is. It reached a central pressure of 892 millibars, among the lowest ever recorded in the Atlantic Ocean. It is tied as the third-most intense Atlantic storm with the devastating 1935 Labor Day hurricane.

Violent shaking was recorded on a live camera in Kingston, Jamaica, on Tuesday morning as tropical-storm-force wind gusts howled through the streets of the island nation's capital ahead of the catastrophic landfall of Category 5 Hurricane Melissa.