Long before Hurricane Melissa completes her life, the storm has stamped its place in the record books.

At 1 p.m. Tuesday, Category 5 Hurricane Melissa arrived at the southern shores of Jamaica. The storm, with winds of 185 miles an hour, was one of the biggest threats —weather-related or not —in the country’s history. 

Starting as a tropical wave on October 16th, an area of disorganized showers and thunderstorms moved through the Atlantic Ocean before organizing. Five days later, Tropical Storm Melissa formed south of the Dominican Republic.

The tropical cyclone formed in a typically active part of the Caribbean Sea. Somehow, though, not a single tropical system had formed there up to that point in the season. As a result, the untouched waters south of these islands were incredibly conducive to bubbling up a storm. 

 

 

At first, Melissa meandered south of Hispaniola, staying as a tropical storm. Strong westerly wind shear kept the storm at bay, even as waters below the tropical storm were sitting at 85+ degrees, far above the needed temperature of about 78 degrees for tropical cyclones to sustain themselves.

 

 

Typically, slow-moving storms develop more slowly because they can stir up cooler waters from below more effectively. However, due to a stable summer and a lack of prior activity, the waters below Melissa were high in ocean heat content —the total thermal energy stored in the water. In laments, the water was warm, even below the surface.

 

 

This meant that once shear relaxed, Melissa would rapidly strengthen. By Saturday morning, this occurred while Melissa was still a tropical storm. It became a Category 5 hurricane two days later.

By Monday evening, the now deadly hurricane began to turn northward. She reached 185 miles per hour, the highest speed recorded in the Atlantic in six years.

 

 

The storm made landfall at that same strength. This was the first time a hurricane made landfall at this speed in six years —and also tied for the strongest Atlantic storm ever to make landfall. Melissa’s strength beats other storms whose names are common, such as Irma, Dorian, Dean, and David.

 

 

Its minimum pressure fell to 892 millibars (for reference, typical nontropical pressure readings can vary between 970 and 1040 millibars) at landfall, the first time this has happened in 90 years. Melissa beats Hurricane Gilbert, who has his own place in Jamaican hurricane history, though it is tied with the deadly 1935 Labor Day Hurricane, which ravaged the Florida Keys.

Officially, Hurricane Melissa made landfall with a strength of 55 mph, higher than Gilbert, the previous strongest storm to hit Jamaica. Additionally, Melissa made landfall nine days later than Hurricane Wilma, making this storm the latest Category five to make landfall on record in the Atlantic basin.

 

 

Experts also found that Melissa’s eye was the driest on record. As strong winds rotate about the center of the hurricane, air sinks at the center of this particular low pressure. This causes a calm, cloud-free center to form. In this case, the brightness temperature of the eye was found to be higher than that of any other storm on record, suggesting that the air inside it was equally as dry.

 

 

Over the next few days, the Valley will have to deal with a strong rain event, thanks to low pressure from the south. This area of low pressure is part of an upper-air troughing pattern, as shown by the green colors on the graphic above. This trough will influence Melissa’s future steering as the hurricane moves East.

After the Hurricane moves away from Jamaica, it will pick up speed and move towards the Northeast, making another landfall in Cuba and passing over the Islands of the Bahamas on Wednesday. It will move even more quickly on Thursday, as it could pass near Bermuda as a low-category hurricane.

When all is set and done, Jamaica may receive up to 40 inches of rain, triggering landslides across the mountainous center of the country. The National Hurricane Center is urging those in Jamaica to stay in their safe places as of Tuesday afternoon. They note flash flooding, large waves, and life-threatening storm surge will ravage the island through the rest of Tuesday.

 

 

 

As of 3 p.m. Tuesday, Melissa is still a Category 5 hurricane, though weaker with sustained winds at 160mph as it travels through the island. Get up-to-date news about this hurricane and more with the Storm Tracker 21 app.