Hurricane Melissa leaves trail of destruction across Caribbean

(MENAFN) Hurricane Melissa has left widespread devastation across the Caribbean, serving as a stark reminder of the growing intensity of tropical storms fueled by climate change. As emergency teams in Haiti, Jamaica, and Cuba work to clear wreckage and assist affected communities, climate scientists are raising alarms about the role of warming Atlantic waters in producing stronger, slower, and more destructive hurricanes.

“Once heated at large scale and to depth, the oceans are slow to cool down again; that heat is now in place for years to come, and it just takes the ‘right’ atmospheric conditions for hurricanes to spin up,” said Robert Marsh, professor of oceanography and climate at the University of Southampton.

Melissa, the third Category 5 hurricane of 2025, became the most powerful storm ever to strike Jamaica, leaving a trail of destruction throughout the Caribbean. In Cuba, the United Nations estimates that 2.2 million people were affected, with damages reported to roughly 60,000 homes, 461 health centers, and 1,552 schools. Across Haiti and Jamaica, flooding and landslides reportedly claimed at least 75 lives, according to local media.

“Melissa was the strongest hurricane to make landfall on Jamaica, surpassing Hurricane Gilbert in 1988,” said James Baldini, professor of earth sciences at the University of Durham. “It was also the third most intense tropical cyclone in the Atlantic Basin, and the most intense to make landfall.”

The storm’s maximum sustained winds reached 185 miles per hour, with a minimum central pressure of 892 millibars, tying it for the third-most intense Atlantic hurricane on record. Baldini noted that its rapid intensification—gaining roughly 70 mph in just 24 hours—added to its lethality.

Marsh highlighted the unprecedented nature of the hurricane for the region: “As a landfalling Category 5 hurricane, Melissa was close to unprecedented for the region as a whole over recorded history – one of the top three for landfalling winds over the last century, and unprecedented for Jamaica.”

Experts emphasize that storms like Melissa are likely to become more frequent and severe as global ocean temperatures continue to rise, underscoring the urgent need for climate action and improved disaster preparedness across vulnerable regions.

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