• Rare Category 5: Melissa rapidly intensified over the weekend and is now a Category 5 hurricane with 160 mph winds. Its outer bands are already lashing Jamaica with wind and rain.
• Catastrophic impact: Up to 40 inches of rain, 13 feet of storm surge and 160 mph sustained winds will cause “extensive infrastructure damage” that will cut off communities, the National Hurricane Center warned.
• Jamaica’s worst hurricane: Mandatory evacuation orders have been issued for vulnerable coastal areas of Jamaica ahead of what will likely be the strongest storm on record to hit the country. Melissa has already killed three people in Haiti and one person in the Dominican Republic.
• Extreme rapid intensification: Melissa more than doubled in strength over the weekend, increasing its winds by 70 mph in just 24 hours. More tropical systems are rapidly intensifying and wringing out more rain as the atmosphere and ocean warm due to fossil fuel pollution.
The sun rose to reveal a terrifying image of Category 5 Hurricane Melissa Monday morning. The center of the monstrous hurricane was just over 100 miles from the southern coast of Jamaica, but its clouds and storms had completely obscured the island from view.
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