Tropical cyclone · Jamaica and the Caribbean
Melissa: a category 5 landfall in Jamaica
For three days in late October 2025 Hurricane Melissa drifted south of Jamaica at walking pace, strengthening over unusually warm water and raining on the island the whole time. At midday on 28 October it came ashore near New Hope, in the parish of Westmoreland, with winds of about 298 km h⁻¹ and a central pressure of 892 hPa, tying the 1935 Labor Day hurricane as the strongest storm ever to make landfall in the Atlantic.
26–29 October 2025 · Jamaica, Haiti, Cuba · ERA5
892hPa
Central pressure at landfall
Equal to the Labor Day hurricane of 1935, the Atlantic record at landfall.N1
193mm
ERA5 rain at Kingston, 28 Oct
The Lab's grid point nearest the capital, after 106 mm the day before.
What happened
Melissa formed in the central Caribbean and for days moved little, its steering currents weak. Over very warm water it intensified rapidly, reaching category 5 on 27 October while still south of Jamaica.N1N2 The slow approach meant days of rain before the wind arrived.
Landfall came on 28 October near New Hope in south-western Jamaica. Black River and the south-west coast were devastated; the island's power grid largely failed. Melissa then crossed eastern Cuba and its rain caused deadly floods in Haiti.N1
A slow approach
Two days apart, the storm has barely moved: on 26 October it lies south of Jamaica's eastern end, on 28 October just off the south-west coast.
Rain before the wind
At the grid point over Kingston, ERA5 puts 106 mm of rain on 27 October and 193 mm on 28 October; over the western end of the island, where the eye came ashore, the rain arrived later but nearly as heavily. On steep, already soaked ground, such totals bring landslides and flash floods well away from the eye.
| Day | Kingston | Western Jamaica (18.0° N, 78.0° W) |
|---|---|---|
| Oct 25 | 21 | 0 |
| Oct 26 | 42 | 2 |
| Oct 27 | 106 | 37 |
| Oct 28 | 193 | 153 |
| Oct 29 | 35 | 24 |
The strongest landfalls
892hPa
Melissa's pressure at landfall equals the Labor Day hurricane that struck the Florida Keys in 1935. ERA5's 28 km grid shows the storm's lowest pressure near 985 hPa: a reanalysis places such a storm well but smooths its narrow core.
Explore in the Lab
Open the event in the Climate mode
Each button opens the Lab on that view, with the date, map layer and data set already chosen.
References
News
- N1The Weather Channel. Hurricane Melissa recap: category 5 landfall in Jamaica, then Cuba and Hispaniola. 31 October 2025.Melissa's track, intensity and landfall, and its impacts in Jamaica, Cuba and Haiti.
- N2NASA Disasters Program. Hurricane Melissa 2025. October–November 2025.Satellite and response work on the hurricane.