Havana: Hurricane Melissa has left a trail of destruction across the Caribbean and a warning for the world. As emergency teams in Haiti, Jamaica, and Cuba clear wreckage from one of the most powerful storms ever recorded in the region, climate scientists are sounding the alarm: the Atlantic's warming waters are fueling stronger, slower, and deadlier hurricanes.
According to Anadolu Agency, Hurricane Melissa, the third Category 5 storm of 2025 and the most powerful ever to hit Jamaica, devastated communities across the Caribbean. In Cuba, the UN estimates that 2.2 million people were affected, with damage reported to some 60,000 homes, 461 health centers, and 1,552 schools. Across Haiti and Jamaica, local media report that flooding and landslides killed at least 75 people.
James Baldini, professor of earth sciences at the University of Durham, noted that Melissa was the strongest hurricane to make landfall on Jamaica, surpassing Hurricane Gilbert in 1988. It was also the third most intense tropical cyclone in the Atlantic Basin, and the most intense to make landfall. Melissa's maximum sustained winds reached 185 miles per hour (mph), with a minimum central pressure of 892 millibars (mbar), tying it for the third-most intense Atlantic hurricane on record. The rapid intensification of the storm, increasing by about 70 mph in 24 hours, added to its dangerous nature.
Robert Marsh, professor of oceanography and climate at the University of Southampton, highlighted that the storm's landfall winds matched century-old records. 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 what distinguished Melissa was not only its power but its pace. The hurricane lingered over land for days, magnifying the devastation. Baldini explained that the storm often appeared to stall, moving at human walking speeds of about 2 miles per hour, compared to the typical 10-20 mph in the Caribbean. This slow movement, combined with strong winds and heavy rainfall, resulted in catastrophic damage.
Marsh compared Melissa to Hurricane Dorian, which devastated the Bahamas in 2019, describing it as unusually sluggish. Over very warm water, slower-moving hurricanes have longer to grow stronger. Melissa's northward track, rather than the more typical westward path, prolonged exposure across densely populated islands already struggling with fragile infrastructure.
Both scientists agreed that rising ocean temperatures are turbocharging storms like Melissa. Marsh pointed out that hurricanes are intensifying with climate change, gaining more power from ocean warming both at the surface and to greater depth, notably in the southern Caribbean. His recently published paper indicates that over the past two years, the tropical North Atlantic experienced unusually warm ocean temperatures, leading to stronger hurricanes in 2024 before making landfall.
Baldini added that warm sea surfaces are the ultimate fuel source for tropical cyclones, explaining that water temperature needs to be about 27 degrees Celsius (80.6 degrees Fahrenheit) for hurricanes to gain power. Findings from the Imperial College Storm Model (IRIS) estimated that climate change increased Melissa's rainfall by 16% and its maximum wind speed by 7%.
Looking ahead, scientists warn that even if the Atlantic remains calm through the winter, the next hurricane season could bring equally destructive storms. Marsh noted that the weakening of large-scale currents, primarily the Gulf Stream, which carry heat away from the tropics, poses a further problem. These currents have weakened over the last 20 years and are predicted to weaken further, leading to more heat staying in the region and favoring strong hurricanes.
Baldini concluded that such events are likely to become the new normal, with climate change continuing to produce these sorts of large storms.