Hurricane Melissa directly hit Jamaica on Tuesday as a catastrophic Category 5 storm, making history as the most powerful hurricane ever to strike the island. The wind speeds were so extreme that NOAA’s Hurricane Hunters were forced to abandon their mission early due to severe turbulence before Melissa even made landfall. It rapidly intensified to become the strongest storm on Earth in 2025. So just how powerful was Melissa, what was its impact on Jamaica, Haiti and Cuba, and how does it stack