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Hurricane Melissa, which slammed into Jamaica on Tuesday with sustained winds of 185 mph, stood out even among an era of increasingly intense storms fueled by a warming Atlantic Ocean.

Despite encountering multiple atmospheric factors that typically weaken hurricanes, Melissa continued to build strength, surprising even seasoned researchers.

In today’s climate, more hurricanes are experiencing rapid intensification — an increase in wind speed of 35 mph or more in 24 hours. But Melissa surpassed this, undergoing extreme rapid intensification by accelerating about 70 mph in just one day. Scientists reported the storm even went through a second burst of speed, surging to 175 mph before making landfall.

"It’s been an extraordinary and powerful hurricane," commented hurricane expert Phil Klotzbach from Colorado State University.

Melissa Matches Historic Records

When Melissa reached land, it tied existing records for Atlantic hurricanes in both wind velocity and barometric pressure, according to Klotzbach and Brian McNoldy, a hurricane researcher with the University of Miami. The pressure reading matched the devastating 1935 Labor Day hurricane in Florida, and the 185 mph wind speed tied with Hurricane Dorian from 2019 and the same 1935 storm. Hurricane Allen registered winds of 190 mph in 1980, but it didn't make landfall at that strength.

Typically, very strong hurricanes go through what's called an eyewall replacement, where the central eye structure collapses and a new, larger one forms, which temporarily weakens the storm. Melissa appeared to be entering this phase but never completed it, keeping its full power, said McNoldy and Klotzbach.

Adding to the strangeness, Melissa lingered just off the coast of Jamaica — a mountainous island that usually disrupts hurricane organization. Yet Melissa seemed unaffected by the rough terrain.

"It hovered beside this large mountainous island and acted like it wasn't even there," McNoldy noted in surprise.

Hurricanes draw their energy from warm ocean waters. Normally, when a storm stalls over one area — as Melissa did — it dredges up cooler water that slows its momentum. However, this didn't happen. Meteorologist Bernadette Woods Placky from Climate Central explained the water beneath Melissa was warm enough and deep enough to keep supplying energy consistently.

“It’s incredible how this storm just kept growing,” Woods Placky said. "There was so much warm water available that it never lost its strength."

Ocean Heat Sparks Explosive Growth

Melissa hit extreme intensification levels during five separate six-hour intervals, achieving gains that left researchers stunned, said McNoldy. On top of that, it added another 35 mph to its wind speed in quick succession — an extraordinary move, he added.

"Seeing the forecasts update was gut-wrenching," Woods Placky said.

"Monday morning, the team watched the figures shoot up — 175 mph. Then Tuesday morning, they climbed again to 185," she recounted.

"It was like an explosion in intensity," she summarized.

People walk along a road during the passing of Hurricane Melissa in Rocky Point, Jamaica, Tuesday, Oct. 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)

People walk along a road during the passing of Hurricane Melissa in Rocky Point, Jamaica, Tuesday, Oct. 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)

One major element behind Melissa's strength was temperature. McNoldy says parts of the Atlantic along Melissa's path were about 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) warmer than what’s typical for this time of year.

Using accepted scientific methods to compare today’s climate to a world without man-made global warming, Climate Central concluded that the heat anomalies in the ocean were 500 to 700 times more likely to happen because of climate change.

An assessment by the Associated Press of Atlantic hurricanes reaching Category 5 strength over the last 125 years revealed a sharp rise in recent times. Thirteen such storms have formed between 2016 and 2025, including three this year alone. No previous decade before last year had seen more than nine Category 5 hurricanes. Nearly 30% of those storms occurred after 2016.

The researchers acknowledged that pre-satellite storm records are incomplete — some powerful hurricanes far from land may have gone undocumented. Advances in storm classification methods also influence the data. Notably, there were no Category 5 hurricanes in the Atlantic between 2008 and 2015, Klotzbach noted.

Still, experts generally agree that as the world grows warmer, the frequency of extremely powerful hurricanes is expected to increase, even if the total number of storms doesn’t rise.

"The link between water temperature and climate change is becoming clearer through attribution science," said Woods Placky. "When storms like this pass over extremely warm waters, they gain so much extra energy and become even more extreme."

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Science journalist Seth Borenstein has reported on hurricanes for more than 35 years and co-authored two related books. Data journalist M.K. Wildeman provided additional support from Hartford, Connecticut.

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The Associated Press receives financial support for its climate and environmental reporting from several foundations. All editorial content remains under the sole responsibility of AP.