Hurricane Melissa Strikes as Category 5: Assessing Potential US Impact

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(NEXSTAR) — Hurricane Melissa has intensified into one of the most powerful storms recorded in the Atlantic, achieving the formidable Category 5 status on Monday.

Labelled as “extremely dangerous,” the storm is targeting Jamaica, the National Hurricane Center reported on Tuesday. By 1 p.m. ET, the NHC confirmed that Melissa had made landfall in New Hope, Jamaica, unleashing winds of 185 mph.

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According to the NHC, Melissa is advancing north-northeast at approximately 9 mph as of early Tuesday afternoon. Its sluggish pace is expected to keep it lingering over Jamaica throughout the day, with projections indicating it will head towards southeastern Cuba by Wednesday morning.

Waves splash in Kingston, Jamaica, as Hurricane Melissa approaches, Tuesday, Oct. 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)

“I can’t recall a storm moving this slowly for such an extended period,” noted Rebecca Barry, a meteorologist with Nexstar’s WFLA, during a Tuesday broadcast of “Tracking the Tropics.” Barry compared the storm’s intense winds to a tornado, stating, “But it’s persisting for over a day due to its slow movement.”

Massive wind damage is expected in Melissa’s core and Jamaica’s highest mountains could see gusts of up to 200 mph, said Michael Brennan, director of the U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami.

“It’s going to be a very dangerous scenario,” he said, warning that there would be “total building failures.”

Melissa is the fifth most intense Atlantic basin hurricane on record by pressure and the strongest to make landfall since Hurricane Dorian in 2019, according to hurricane specialist and storm surge expert Michael Lowry.

With as close as Jamaica and Cuba are to the U.S. — Havana, Cuba, is just over 100 miles away from Key West, Florida — it’s difficult not to wonder whether Melissa will impact the U.S.

Thankfully, current forecasting suggests that isn’t the case.

The latest experimental cone from the NHC shows Melissa is expected to move through Jamaica, Cuba, and the Bahamas, then travel northward through the Atlantic without reaching the East Coast.

The forecasted track for Hurricane Melissa, which made landfall in Jamaica on Oct. 28, 2025, as a Category 5 storm. (National Hurricane Center)

It’s the poor weather those along the East Coast are experiencing Tuesday that’s helping to keep Melissa away, according to Wes Hohenstein, the chief meteorologist for Nexstar’s WNCN. The region is reporting cool temperatures with breezy conditions and rain in some areas.

“A lot of us are complaining on the East Coast today because we’ve got horrible weather, but it’s that horrible weather, jet stream dip that’s keeping the system away from the United States,” Hohenstein explained during “Tracking the Tropics.”

Only one storm, Chantal, has reached the U.S. this Atlantic hurricane season.

The tropical storm brought severe weather to South Carolina, North Carolina, and into Virginia after making landfall in early July. Others in the northeast also saw the impacts of Chantal.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.