Hurricane Melissa made landfall as one of the strongest hurricanes on record, coming ashore near New Hope, Jamaica with top winds of 185 mph.
Melissa has strengthened since early Tuesday morning. It's one of the strongest storms to ever make landfall in the Atlantic, with the same pressure and maximum winds of the 1935 Labor Day Hurricane that decimated southwest Florida.
Catastrophic damage is expected from the storm. Melissa is the third strongest Atlantic Hurricane on record by central pressure. This is an extremely dire and rare situation for Jamaica.
Scripps News reports that inside Melissa’s eyewall, 185 mph winds were blowing across the Caribbean Sea. That push of wind is expected to drive water and waves ashore, creating a potential storm surge of 9 to 13 feet.
Melissa rivals Hurricane Wilma (2005), which had similar winds, but Wilma's pressure was a bit lower at 882 mb. Melissa's pressure had dropped to 892 millibars, which is a sign of its strength.
The next stop for this storm is to exit Jamaica and roll toward Eastern Cuba and the Southwestern Bahamas.
