Cat 5 Melissa ties strongest Atlantic landfall on record

At 895 mb & 192 mph/308 km/h winds, it ties the 1935 Labor Day Hurricane for strongest hurricane at landfall in the modern era as it directly hits Jamaica. To paraphrase two met folks' observations: it's the equivalent of a 30 mile wide EF-4 tornado hitting an area for hours. And to get that kind of pressure at sea level, the hurricane essentially displaced 3600 ft/1.1 km of the air column. Speechless.

If verified, it's also set a world record dropsonde gust of 252 mph as measured by a Hurricane Hunter aircraft (which for the second day in a row had to cut the mission short due to possible damage from turbulence).

Parts of Jamaica are forecast to get up to 36 inches/91 cm of rainfall. (edit: The flooding videos that have managed to get out so far are already extremely intense - the hilly nature of the island is making things far worse by channeling the water :( )

It now heads to Cuba, but will once again intensify in the very hot oceanic waters in the area before hitting Cuba's 2nd most populous region (if it stays on its current track).

Absolutely devastating for the people there.

"Absolutely stunning" gif of the eye itself as it approaches the island: https://bsky.app/profile...

More info here: https://yaleclimateconnections.org/2025...

(Just a reminder that the 1st thing the world's richest man did when he got some power was to disable USAID and other U.S. agencies that aid in disaster relief. And then a little baby shitstain ruined what was left.)

a reputable charity if you feel like throwing some dollars at those in the path: https://www.globalgiving.org/projects...

#climatechangeisnow

source: https://www.goes.noaa.gov/floater...