Seismometers picked up the ferocious winds and waves of Hurricane Melissa, showing how the tools can be used to better understand storms today and those from the past

With sustained winds of 175 mph and a powerful central pressure of 906 millibars — among the 11 lowest on record — Melissa will go down as not only Jamaica’s strongest hurricane but among the most powerful of all time and part of an ultrarare trio in 2025.

Hours from landfall, Hurricane Melissa is also slow moving like Hurricane Harvey in 2017, which could mean catastrophic flooding.

This late-season surprise behemoth went beyond 'extreme' rapid intensification and now ties Katrina and Andrew as the 10th strongest hurricane ever recorded.

Hurricane Melissa is packing sustained winds of up to 175 m/h (282 km/h) as the slow-moving Category 5 storm barrels towards Jamaica, in what could be the largest on record for the Caribbean island.

Jamaica residents are bracing themselves for potentially the most devastating storm to ever hit the nation. Hurricane Melissa is threatening to unleash catastrophic flooding, deadly landslides and towering storm surges across the Caribbean.

Now, as a weakened category 2 storm, there have been some impacts felt in the Bahamas, with Melissa tracking toward Bermuda on Thursday. Beyond that, as can be fairly typical, Melissa will weaken so that it will no longer be a hurricane or tropical storm as it moves into the North Atlantic.

The impacts of Hurricane Melissa were not only felt in Jamaica but also affected people here in Eastern North Carolina. Local Chief of Run A Boat Jamaican Kitchen restaurant, Robert Lindsay, is a native of the island and has family and friends still living back home.