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As previously reported, Hurricane Melissa has been confirmed as the most powerful storm ever to make a direct landfall on Jamaica, leaving an unprecedented mark in meteorological history.
Beyond its catastrophic local impact, Melissa also set records across the Atlantic basin. With sustained winds of 185 mph, it tied the record for the strongest hurricane ever to make landfall in the Atlantic. Its central pressure of 892 millibars also matched that of the infamous 1935 Labor Day Hurricane, long regarded as the most intense landfalling storm on record.
Adding to its list of extraordinary statistics, Hurricane Hunter aircraft flying through the storm captured an astonishing instantaneous wind gust of 252 mph just above the ocean surface before landfall. This measurement comes within a single mile per hour of the world record for a tropical cyclone wind gust — 253 mph, documented during Cyclone Olivia in Australia in 1996 — underscoring Melissa’s truly historic strength and intensity.
