Melissa set to be the strongest hurricane to ever strike Jamaica

The only positive is that on Monday the core of the storm’s strongest winds remains quite small. According to recent data, its hurricane-force winds only extend about 25 miles from the center. Unfortunately, Melissa will hit Jamaica directly, with the island’s capital, Kingston, right of center, where the winds and surges will be strongest.

Beyond Jamaica, Melissa will likely be one of the strongest hurricanes ever recorded in Cuba. Melissa will hit the eastern half of the island Tuesday evening, bringing the trifecta of heavy rain, damaging winds and storm surge. The storm also poses lesser threats to Hispaniola, the Bahamas and potentially Bermuda. There will be no impact in the United States.

A sneakily strong season

Most residents of the U.S. coast will consider this Atlantic season, which officially ends in just over a month, to be fairly uneventful. Named storms have had relatively few direct impacts on the United States.

But this season has been sneakily strong. Melissa is just the 45th storm since 1851 to reach Category 5 status, defined as having sustained winds of 157 mph or greater. Already this year, Erin and Humberto reached Category 5 status, and Melissa is now the third such hurricane. Fortunately, the previous two storms posed only a minimal threat to land.

Before this year, there had only been one season with three Category 5 hurricanes recorded: 2005, which saw three storms that all hit the US Gulf states and had their names retired: Katrina, Rita and Wilma.