Melissa is among three Atlantic hurricanes to make landfall with 185 mph winds. Another storm to do so was the Labor Day Hurricane of 1935.

The strength is measured by the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale, which rates hurricanes from Category 1 to 5 based on wind speed.

Hurricane Melissa has often been described as a “monster hurricane.” In terms of intensity, that characterization is certainly accurate. However, when discussing a storm’s magnitude, it is important to distinguish between intensity and size.

Most of Jamaica remains without power, as our correspondent reports floods, mudslides and "palm trees tossed like toothpicks".

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.

Melissa is now a category 3 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson hurricane wind scale, the U.S. Hurricane Center said on Saturday. The hurricane was located about 280 miles (450 km) from Port-au-Prince, Haiti,

The intensity of a hurricane is measured by its maximum sustained wind speed, and when that speed increases by at least 35 miles per hour in a 24-hour period — or roughly two categories on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale — meteorologists call that “rapid intensification.”

Hurricane Melissa, the strongest tropical cyclone of 2025, disrupts Caribbean travel, closing airports and causing widespread flight cancellations.

John Morales, a meteorologist with NBC New York, is going viral for his raw reaction during an on-air segment before the storm made landfall Tuesday. In a clip posted to social media, Morales' fellow meteorologist Adam Berg shared that a new advisory had been released by the National Hurricane Center.

Melissa will make history in Jamaica with landfall today, packing catastrophic flooding, landslides and destructive winds. It will then target eastern Cuba and the southeast Bahamas. Here's the very latest forecast.