FOX 13 meteorologist Nash Rhodes has the latest on Hurricane Melissa.
Hurricane Melissa continued to wreck a punishing path of damaging winds and rain across the island of Jamaica on Tuesday, Oct. 28, and is expected to remain an extremely dangerous major hurricane as it hits Cuba by Wednesday, according to the U.S. National Hurricane Center.
The Category 5 storm hit the southwestern coast of Jamaica near New Hope around 1 p.m. ET Tuesday with catastrophic winds speeds of about 185 mph after churning slowly toward the island nation. The hurricane center said Melissa's landfall is one of the most powerful in the Atlantic Basin's recorded history.
As the storm's center moved across western Jamaica to its northern coast, Melissa became a Category 4 storm with winds of 145 mph and torrential rainfall that caaused flash flooding and life-threatening storm surge, the hurricane center said.
"Residents in Jamaica should remain in a safe shelter," the hurricane center said in the 5 p.m. ET advisory on Oct. 28. "In the warning area in Cuba, residents should seek safe shelter. In the Bahamas, preparations to protect life and property should be completed later tonight."
Melissa is expected to reach southeastern Cuba as an extremely dangerous major hurricane, and it could still be a major hurricane when it moves across the southeastern Bahamas," the NHC said in the 5 p.m. advisory.
Forecasters said Melissa will move across southeastern Cuba late Tuesday night and early Wednesday morning, Oct. 29, and move across the southeastern or central Bahamas later Wednesday, then approach Bermuda Thursday.
Torrential downpours that could produce 15 to 30 inches of rain, with as much as 40 inches of rain possible in isolated locations, are also expected to contribute to deadly landslides on Jamaica's mountainous terrain, the National Hurricane Center said.
With its fierce intensification, Melissa became the strongest tropical cyclone of 2025 globally, "beating out the Western Pacific's Typhoon Ragasa," meteorologist Jeff Masters wrote for Yale Climate Connections on Oct. 27. At least seven deaths in the Caribbean had been blamed on the dangerous hurricane as of Oct. 27.
Forecasters said life-threatening storm surge remained a threat on the northwest coast of Jamaica, near Montego Bay, where the surge could be 2 to 4 feet above ground level. Once-dangerous storm surge along the southern coast of Jamaica should subside Tuesday night, the hurricane center said.
A potential storm surge along the southeast coast of Cuba late Tuesday or Wednesday, could hit reach 8 to 12 feet above normal tide levels and bring "large and destructive waves," as the storm makes landfall, forecasters said. Minor coastal flooding is possible in bays and inlets along the north coast of eastern Cuba.
Swells generated by Melissa are expected to affect portions of Hispaniola, Jamaica, eastern Cuba, and the Cayman Islands during the next several days, forecasters said, likely "life-threatening surf and rip current conditions." Swells will reach the Bahamas, the Turks and Caicos Islands, and Bermuda later this week.
Storm surge of 5 to 8 ft above normally dry ground is possible in the southeastern Bahamas on Wednesday, and 2 to 4 ft above normally dry ground in the Turks and Caicos Islands on Wednesday. The storm could also cause minor coastal flooding is expected along the coast of Haiti.
Live video shows footage from the island as the storm roars ashore:
Hurricane Melissa tracker
This forecast track shows the most likely path of the center of the storm. It does not illustrate the full width of the storm or its impacts, and the center of the storm is likely to travel outside the cone up to 33% of the time.
Hurricane Melissa spaghetti models
Illustrations include an array of forecast tools and models, and not all are created equal. The hurricane center uses only the top four or five highest-performing models to help make its forecasts.
Melissa becomes first Category 5 hurricane to strike Jamaica
Jamaica's Prime Minister Andrew Holness and other officials urged Jamaicans to seek safe shelter and to stay off the roads until the worst of the hurricane passes over. The island's residents were also encouraged to be prepared for impacts they have not experienced with previous hurricanes.
"Hour by hour, it is becoming apparent that the impact of Hurricane Melissa will be greater than the impact of Hurricane Beryl, certainly in terms of rainfall and flooding," Holness said.
Within the catastrophic winds of the eyewall, "total structural failure is likely, especially in higher elevation areas where wind speeds atop and on the windward sides of hills and mountains could be up to 30% stronger" than the winds at the surface, the hurricane center warned. If the estimated sustained winds at the surface remain at 175 mph, that would put wind speeds at higher elevations well over 200 mph.
The storm could cause "extensive infrastructural damage, long-lasting power and communication outages," isolating communities, the center said.
How do hurricanes form?
Hurricanes are born in the tropics, above warm water. Clusters of thunderstorms can develop over the ocean when water temperatures exceed 80 degrees. If conditions are right, the clusters swirl into a storm known as a tropical wave or tropical depression.
A tropical depression becomes a named tropical storm once its sustained wind speeds reach 39 mph. When its winds reach 74 mph, the storm officially becomes a hurricane.
This story has been updated to add new information.
Contributing: Dinah Voyles Pulver and Thao Nguyen, USA TODAY
Gabe Hauari is a national trending news reporter at USA TODAY. You can follow him on X @GabeHauari or email him at [email protected].