Major hurricane breaks 46-year record

Hurricane Melissa’s maximum sustained windspeeds were the strongest recorded in the Atlantic basin in 46 years, with a newly released National Hurricane Center (NHC) analysis confirming the storm produced some of the most extreme winds ever measured in the Atlantic, matching all‑time sustained wind records and shattering long‑standing benchmarks for hurricane intensity.

Melissa formed as a tropical storm on October 21, 2025, and rapidly intensified into a Category 5 hurricane before making a catastrophic landfall near New Hope, Jamaica, on October 28. It went on to impact Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Cuba, the Bahamas, and Bermuda before dissipating on November 1. The storm caused catastrophic destruction, becoming the costliest hurricane in Jamaica’s history with$8.8 billion in damage and killing 102 people across Jamaica, Haiti, the Dominican Republic, and Cuba.

“Melissa is the strongest hurricane on record to make landfall in Jamaica and is tied for the strongest hurricane (in terms of maximum sustained wind speed) to make landfall in the Atlantic basin,” the NHC said in the new report.

The updated analysis bumped Melissa’s maximum sustained windspeeds up by 5 mph, an amount that is “well within the normal uncertainty of +/- 10 percent,” an NHC spokesperson told Newsweek.

“This increase is based on a thorough examination of aircraft winds, satellite intensity estimates, and surface pressures, and the fact that the aircraft in the storm in the hours before landfall were not able to sample all of the quadrants of the storm,” the spokesperson said.

According to the NHC’s final report, Melissa’s peak sustained winds reached 190 mph, tying 1980’s Hurricane Allen for the strongest sustained winds ever recorded in the Atlantic Basin. The storm also generated a 252‑mph gust, the highest wind speed ever captured by a dropsonde, surpassing the previous record set by Typhoon Megi in 2010.

The updated windspeed prompted responses from numerous meteorologists.

“Hurricane Melissa was upgraded to 190 mph today, tied for the strongest Atlantic hurricane on record!” WFLA-TV chief meteorologist Jeff Berardelli posted on X. “NHC says: “Based on a blend of the satellite estimates, flight-level wind and dropsonde data, and the fact that the area of strongest winds was likely not sampled by reconnaissance aircraft, Melissa’s peak intensity is estimated to be 165 kt at 1200 UTC 28 October. The dropsonde that measured a mean wind of 188 kt in the lowest 150 m, recorded an instantaneous peak wind of 219 kt (representative of a wind gust) at an altitude of 906 mb, which is the strongest wind ever recorded by a dropsonde in a tropical cyclone.”