The fierce winds of a Category 5 hurricane have already descended upon Jamaica.

On Tuesday, Hurricane Melissa collided with the island’s western coast, tearing roofs from buildings and inundating streets with torrential rain as it carved a path of devastation.

Boasting maximum sustained winds of 185 miles per hour (297 km/h), Melissa stands as the most formidable hurricane Jamaica has faced since record-keeping began in 1851.

This also marks it as the most potent storm globally this year, as reported by the National Hurricane Center in the United States.

Echoing other storms of the season, Melissa has shown rapid and intense strengthening—an anomaly scientists link to the effects of climate change.

They say hurricanes are essentially ‘convective heat engines’, meaning they are driven by the rise and fall of warm, moist air from the ocean.

The warmer the ocean is, the more energy a hurricane can gather and the more destruction it is capable of producing.

Professor Friederike Otto, a leading climate scientist from Imperial College London and head of World Weather Attribution, told Daily Mail: ‘The Gulf of Mexico has been very warm over the last months, in large part due to global warming, caused by the burning of fossil fuels, providing ideal conditions for hurricanes to become very intense.’

Hurricane Melissa, like other blasts this year, has exhibited strange growth spurts – which scientists are attributing to climate change

Analysis from the research group Climate Central suggests that unusually warm waters in the Gulf of Mexico were made up to 700 times more likely by climate change.

This study suggests that these warm waters, combined with overall tropical climate warming, increased Melissa’s wind speeds by about 10 miles per hour (16 km/h) and increased the potential damage by 50 per cent.

‘Every single hurricane in the North Atlantic that we studied over the years has become more intense, both with respect to wind speeds and associated rainfall, due to climate change,’ says Professor Otto.

‘Melissa is no exception, but to quantify how much more intense we need to still do the study.’ 

The hurricane has been difficult to forecast, according to The New York Times, with the NHC highlighting that its models have often differed from the storm’s actual path. 

Professor Hannah Cloke, a hydrologist from the University of Reading, told the Daily Mail that the blast will ‘leave a deep and permanent scar across the whole region.’

She added: ‘Melissa has been a strange, slow hurricane that has been hanging around in the Atlantic, growing stronger and stronger in bursts.

Scientists say that Hurricane Melissa has the perfect conditions to cause major damage. It has spent multiple days growing in the Gulf of Mexico and is moving very slowly as it approaches land

‘This is one of those deadly scenarios that you prepare for but hope desperately will not come true. Those people sheltering on the island remain in great danger.’

Scientists warned that Melissa’s initially slow passage – around five miles per hour (seven km/h)- means the storm will linger above Jamaica for several days, creating more devastation with each passing minute.

The NHC predicts that this could see as much as 40 inches (100 cm) of rain dropped over some parts of the island, triggering massive flooding.

At the same time, storm surges are expected to reach nine to 13 feet (2.7 to 3.9 meters) above ground level near where Melissa makes landfall.

The storm reached Category 4 status on October 26, after its wind speeds accelerated by more than 70 miles per hour (112 km/h) in just one day. 

The next day, the storm further intensified to reach Category 5 as it drifted over warm ocean waters.

Once Hurricane Melissa made landfall, the most immediate damage was caused by rapid flooding.

At its current pace, scientists warn that Hurricane Melissa could linger over Jamaica for multiple days

Jamaica is no stranger to tropical storms and is considered well–prepared compared to other islands in the region 

Experts say the storm surge, which is caused by low atmospheric pressure and friction between wind and the water, will likely be the deadliest component.

For example, during 2013’s Typhoon Haiyan 6,300 people died in Eastern Visayas, Philippines, mostly in a 16ft (five-meter) storm surge.

Professor David Alexander, Emeritus Professor of Emergency Planning and Management at University College London, told the Daily Mail: ‘Flooding damage will be extensive and very substantial. Fast–moving water will scour out the foundations of buildings and uproot trees.’

At the same time, winds will be powerful enough to destroy buildings by ripping off the roof, even where metal brackets known as hurricane straps have been installed.

To make matters worse, Professor Alexander points out that major hurricanes often spawn multiple tornadoes when they hit land.

Like many islands in the Caribbean, Jamaica is particularly vulnerable to the impacts of hurricanes due to its low–lying geography. 

The storm has already led to heavy rain in the Dominican Republic, where a waterlogged road is seen last week

Scientists warn that Jamaica’s low–lying geography and small size make it particularly vulnerable to flooding from storm surges, often the deadliest part of a hurricane. Pictured: Fallen power lines in St Catherine Parish, Jamaica

The wind speeds will be strong enough to destroy houses by tearing off roofs. Before the storm’s arrival, some houses have already been severely damaged (pictured) 

Dr Lina Speight, a meteorologist from Oxford University, told the Daily Mail: ‘Jamaica is a small island, which means that there are limited safe areas.

‘Everywhere will be affected by strong winds and the majority of the population live in low–lying coastal areas, which will be affected by flooding.’

Jamaica is no stranger to tropical storms and is considered well–prepared compared to other islands in the region.

However, all the storms that the country has faced in the past have been Category 3 hurricanes or smaller.

Experts are increasingly concerned that Hurricane Melissa may be more powerful than the island could be prepared to face.

‘It is very hard for anyone to prepare for something that is an order of magnitude bigger than anything they have ever experienced before,’ says Dr Speight.  

‘Buildings, infrastructure and disaster management plans have never been tested to this level before.’ 

Although Jamaica is considered well–prepared for hurricanes compared to some islands in the Caribbean, experts are concerned that Melissa may be too strong to properly prepare for. Pictured:  A man rides a bike ahead of the arrival of Hurricane Melissa

Scientists warn that Hurricane Melissa has been made significantly more dangerous by climate change, which made abnormally warm waters in the Gulf of Mexico almost 700 times more likely 

And while Jamaica is wealthier than many of its neighbors, such as Haiti and the Dominican Republic on Hispanola Island, the country has significantly limited resources to prepare for and recover from the destruction to come.

Scientists also warn that storms on the scale of Hurricane Melissa are likely to become more common in the future.

As climate change continues to increase average ocean surface temperatures and to make extreme heat events more intense, hurricanes will become stronger.

Professor Ralf Toumi, an expert on the connection between climate change and hurricanes, told the Daily Mail: ‘We know that warmer oceans will sustain stronger storms, so there is a direct connection to climate change.’

Although the total number of hurricanes is not changing, major storms on the scale of Category 3 to Category 5 are becoming more frequent.

That means islands in the Caribbean will likely need to prepare for destruction on the scale of Hurricane Melissa again in the near future.