Tropical Storm Melissa continued to linger in the Caribbean Sea on Friday and is expected to rapidly intensify into a major hurricane over the weekend, potentially reaching Category 5 strength with maximum sustained winds exceeding 175 miles per hour.
Melissa is the 13th named storm of the active 2025 Atlantic hurricane season and, as of Friday evening, was located about 215 miles southeast of Kingston, Jamaica, and roughly 225 miles southwest of Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Meteorologists with the National Hurricane Center predict that Melissa will strengthen significantly as it moves west-northwest across warm Caribbean waters before turning north toward Jamaica.
The storm is projected to make landfall in western Jamaica early Tuesday before crossing into Cuba’s southeastern provinces by Wednesday and then moving out into the Atlantic later in the week. One of the most concerning aspects of Melissa is its size—once fully developed, hurricane-force winds are expected to extend nearly 140 miles from the center, greatly expanding the potential impact zone.
Forecasts indicate that a cold front moving through Florida on Monday will likely help steer Melissa away from the U.S. mainland. However, the system may still affect parts of the eastern Bahamas as a weakened hurricane before it begins to lose strength over cooler waters and increased wind shear.
Officials in Jamaica, Haiti, the Dominican Republic, and Cuba are warning residents to prepare for severe flooding and landslides, with forecasts predicting between 8 and 20 inches of rain and ocean swells up to 12 feet. Melissa’s slow forward movement—currently under 5 miles per hour—may prolong its destructive effects.
The 2025 hurricane season has so far been less damaging than recent years, with no direct U.S. landfalls to date. That has come as a relief to much of the southern United States following three landfalling storms in 2024, including the devastating Hurricane Helene. The Atlantic hurricane season officially runs through December 1, though late-season storms remain rare.