Hurricane Melissa is expected to weaken into an extratropical cyclone on Friday, Oct. 31, the National Hurricane Center said.

Hurricane Melissa will be the strongest storm in modern history to hit Jamaica. Maximum sustained winds are 180 mph.

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 Monday.

Hurricane Melissa is expected to make landfall in Jamaica on Tuesday morning and move across southeastern Cuba Tuesday night.

The death toll from the most recent floods and landslides rose to 37 on Monday, with five people missing and 78 injured, officials said.

This rare late-season Category 5 major hurricane is set to make landfall on Jamaica before impacting Cuba and Haiti in the coming days.

Hurricane Melissa is slamming eastern Cuba on Wednesday morning, Oct. 29, after hammering Jamaica on Tuesday and causing widespread damage.

Tropical Storm Melissa is crawling through the Caribbean Sea, threatening to unleash life-threatening flooding and mudslides across parts of the region later this week. It’s proof this year’s Atlantic hurricane season is not over yet, and Melissa has plenty of time and fuel ahead.

The center of Hurricane Melissa is now about 150 miles northeast of the Bahamas, and impacts will continue to subside over the next several hours. Melissa maintains its category 2

Hurricane Melissa has strengthened into a Category 5 storm and is forecast to bring destructive winds and storm surge and "catastrophic flooding" to Jamaica through the day, according to the National Hurricane Center.

Staffing cuts and a federal government shutdown are stretching scientists’ ability to make valuable hurricane observations.