Gathering data from planes inside hurricanes is a dangerous game and 52 lives have been lost since operations began in 1944.

At first light on Wednesday, the coastal communities of southwestern Jamaica bore the devastation of being in the direct path of Hurricane Melissa.

The US National Hurricane Centre says the category four storm is "extremely dangerous and life-threatening" as it hits the island.

The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) warned on Tuesday of catastrophic conditions in Jamaica as Hurricane Melissa makes landfall, bringing winds gusts exceeding 300 kilometres per hour, flash floods,

The director of apostolates for a Jamaica-based religious community serving the poor in Kingston said Oct. 28 that the Category-5 Hurricane Melissa seems to be sparing Kingston the worst of its wrath. But he added that the storm was not yet finished and much remained unknown about the historic hurricane’s impact in the region.

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

Slow-moving hurricanes and tropical storms can be as dangerous as intense hurricanes, even when they are weaker. A textbook case of this happened in late October 1998.

Melissa tore through the Caribbean as one of the most powerful storms in history. By Thursday, the storm weakened as it left the Bahamas.