Up until this point it had been a quiet year for the Caribbean. But that changed late in October when Tropical Storm Melissa, to the south of Jamaica, strengthened to a category 4 hurricane within 24 hours, fuelled by unusually warm waters in the region.

After becoming slow-moving and bringing several days of damaging winds and flooding rains, Melissa made landfall in Jamaica on 28 October as a major category 5 hurricane with sustained winds of 185mph (297km/h).

Most years the island will feel the impacts of two or three tropical storms or hurricanes but only three hurricanes have directly hit the country since 1988.

Hurricane Melissa was the strongest storm ever to hit Jamaica and tied for the strongest hurricane to make landfall anywhere in the Atlantic basin.

Melissa went on the make a second landfall in eastern Cuba still as a major hurricane and brought widespread damage and flooding.

Melissa brought an abrupt but catastrophic end to the 2025 Atlantic hurricane season with no storms forming in November.

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