Why Hurricane Melissa's intensity and slow-moving speed are a recipe for disaster

Jamaica is expected to be in the storm's eyewall, which refers to the band of dense clouds surrounding the eye of the hurricane. The eyewall generally produces the fiercest winds and heaviest rainfall, according to Deanna Hence, a professor of climate, meteorology and atmospheric sciences at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

Tuesday, Oct. 28: National Hurricane Center's update on Category 5 Hurricane Melissa

Article last updated: Tuesday, Oct. 28, 2025, 2 a.m. ET

Tuesday, Oct. 28 update: Latest on Category 5 Hurricane Melissa from the National Hurricane Center

Article last updated: Tuesday, Oct. 28, 2025, 7 a.m. ET

Ferocious hurricane Melissa is veering from the US. What's keeping it away?

Melissa could briefly bring a swell and rough seas to the U.S. East Coast after it passes the Bahamas later in the week, but because of the angle and speed at which it's moving off into the Atlantic, Roth said any coastal impacts should be short-lived.

Monday, Oct. 27 update from the National Hurricane Center: Latest on Category 5 Hurricane Melissa

Article last updated: Monday, Oct. 27, 2025, 11 p.m. ET

American couple stranded in Jamaica amid hurricane

Hurricane Melissa is edging toward Jamaica and is set to make landfall as a historic Category 5 storm. NBC News' Tom Llamas speaks with an American couple stranded there.

Hurricane Hunters Found Something in Melissa’s Eye: Trapped Birds

The news “underscores the profound ecological toll that Hurricane Melissa will have on Jamaica’s biodiversity,” said one expert on the island.

South Florida groups prepare aid shipments for Caribbean as family members grapple with Hurricane Melissa impacts

"It is more than kind of distressing because you don't know when and you don't know how," said Ewan Simpson, who lives in Jamaica.
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