Major Hurricane Melissa - 892mb - 185mph Jamaica landfall

[andyhb]

The damage in this overhead imagery is pretty mind boggling.

[Normandy Ho]

On 10/31/2025 at 10:13 AM, WxWatcher007 said:

Incredible that the season—an extraordinarily condensed one—ended with possibly the strongest Atlantic landfall in recorded history. 

On top of two other cat fives.  Just  a stupid season .  From the images I’ve seen this is some of the worst wind damage I’ve ever witnessed.  Turning the west end of Jamaica brown from space is wild

[Windspeed]

The damage in this overhead imagery is pretty mind boggling.

The url on extwitter only showed the damage around those coordinates. Here's the main site you can use to zoom through what has been mapped so far.

https://storms.ngs.noaa.gov/storms/melissa/index.html

[Windspeed]

I expected the imagery to be sombering for the southern coast. But the amount of destruction on Jamaica's NW coast, Montego Bay, etc., is pretty horrible. Clearly, Melissa's eyewall remained intense all the way across the island.

[Normandy Ho]

1 minute ago, Windspeed said:

I expected the imagery to be sombering for the southern coast. But the amount of destruction on Jamaica's NW coast, Montego Bay, etc., is pretty horrible. Clearly, Melissa's eyewall remained intense all the way across the island.

For sure the Montego Bay damage consistent with cat3 winds

[Windspeed]

For sure the Montego Bay damage consistent with cat3 winds

Yeah, unfortunately, it seems everything operationally is verifying on the ground. I am hopeful many lives were saved by residents heeding the advanced warnings. They had several days to plan. It will still be a miracle if the death count doesn't rise, however, despite the more densely populated areas in eastern Jamaica avoiding the eyewall. As you can see in the imagery, there are an overwhelming number of structures deroofed, walls down, or completely destroyed.

[Maestrobjwa]

15 minutes ago, Windspeed said:

23 minutes ago, Normandy Ho said:

For sure the Montego Bay damage consistent with cat3 winds

Yeah, unfortunately, it seems everything operationally is verifying on the ground. I am hopeful many lives were saved by residents heeding the advanced warnings. They had several days to plan. It will still be a miracle if the death count doesn't rise, however, despite the more densely populated areas in eastern Jamaica avoiding the eyewall. As you can see in the imagery, there are an overwhelming number of structures deroofed, walls down, or completely destroyed.

Any major flooding reports from this?

[Windspeed]

Any major flooding reports from this?

Flooding did occur. I just do not have access to anything official yet. Based on images, there was clearly a strong storm surge in the right-front quadrant. Also, the eastern areas of the island did not go unscathed as there was flash flooding off the ridges. But so far, I have not read any official numbers yet on either. Hopefully, as Melissa gained forward speed while crossing the island, mudflows due to flooding were mitigated somewhat. If anyone has anything official, please share.

[GaWx]

On 10/30/2025 at 10:42 PM, Coach McGuirk said:

My mom said the death toll is only 3 people.  I said that has to go up as they start actually going through the rubble.

Unfortunately you were right about Jamaica as it’s now up to 28 and probably still climbing as they find more bodies:

 

[Floydbuster]

18 hours ago, Windspeed said:

 

Flooding did occur. I just do not have access to anything official yet. Based on images, there was clearly a strong storm surge in the right-front quadrant. Also, the eastern areas of the island did not go unscathed as there was flash flooding off the ridges. But so far, I have not read any official numbers yet on either. Hopefully, as Melissa gained forward speed while crossing the island, mudflows due to flooding were mitigated somewhat. If anyone has anything official, please share.

 

Thankfully Melissa had tighter-wound bands that I expected, so the massive rain amounts were more limited than I expected. 

[GaWx]

19 hours ago, Windspeed said:

 

Flooding did occur. I just do not have access to anything official yet. Based on images, there was clearly a strong storm surge in the right-front quadrant. Also, the eastern areas of the island did not go unscathed as there was flash flooding off the ridges. But so far, I have not read any official numbers yet on either. Hopefully, as Melissa gained forward speed while crossing the island, mudflows due to flooding were mitigated somewhat. If anyone has anything official, please share.

 

 

44 minutes ago, Floydbuster said:

Thankfully Melissa had tighter-wound bands that I expected, so the massive rain amounts were more limited than I expected. 

 This is just one place that flooded from extreme rains coming off the nearby ridges, the well inland Mandeville to the E of Santa Cruz (which also flooded) and 20 miles E of the worst devastation from surge and winds:

 

[eyewall]

I hate having to deal with all the Nazi crap on X (Twitter) to find footage and imagery from Jamaica. I can't wait to see Josh's full range of footage. 

[FPizz]

6 minutes ago, eyewall said:

I hate having to deal with all the Nazi crap on X (Twitter) to find footage and imagery from Jamaica. I can't wait to see Josh's full range of footage. 

One search pulled up tons of pictures and posts. Not sure what you are doing on there, lol.  You can also just use a google search for tons of images.    

[GaWx]

From elsewhere:

The number of deaths caused by Melissa on Jamaica is now 35 and still rising with an unknown number of people missing. Unfortunately, as expected, this makes Melissa one of the deadliest hurricanes in Jamaica in the recorded database (1851 - now) and the deadliest since Gilbert (using the current death toll). Here are the other most destructive hurricanes in Jamaica since 1851.

Hurricane / Year / Death toll
Charlie / 1951 / 152
1912 Jamaica hurricane / 1912 / 100
1903 Jamaica hurricane / 1903 / 65
Gilbert / 1988 / 45
Tropical Depression One / 1979 / 41
Melissa / 2025 / 35
 

That’s from Kevin, a Storm2K poster

[andyhb]

Incredible and I mean incredible tree/vegetation damage from Melissa across a large area in this video. There's only a few TCs in recent memory that have produced damage on this scale.

[Windspeed]

Incredible and I mean incredible tree/vegetation damage from Melissa across a large area in this video. There's only a few TCs in recent memory that have produced damage on this scale.

Unfortunately, that's what you would expect to see from a higher-end Category 5. The footage is still insane, however. Thanks for sharing.

RE: Deaths, I would be shocked if the toll remains below 100. There is just too far wide an area of immense devestation, especially through the interior of the island, and it takes time to search with cadaver dogs through all scattered piles of debris.

[WxWatcher007]

 

[yotaman]

Haven't read everything on here or if this topic was discussed but did any of the storm chasers there get the eye? 

[eyewall]

3 hours ago, yotaman said:

Haven't read everything on here or if this topic was discussed but did any of the storm chasers there get the eye? 

I thought Josh got into some of it but he has not mentioned anything about it so not sure.

[GaWx]

4 hours ago, yotaman said:

Haven't read everything on here or if this topic was discussed but did any of the storm chasers there get the eye? 

 

59 minutes ago, eyewall said:

I thought Josh got into some of it but he has not mentioned anything about it so not sure.

I think Josh said he was in the right eyewall. But I don’t think he was in the eye itself.