Hurricane Melissa is moving slowly. It reached the coast of Jamaica this afternoon after stalling out over the Caribbean Sea for the past two days. And yet, the winds that form Melissa are shockingly fast.

The strongest storm on Earth in 2025 is about to hit Jamaica. Here's what you need to know about Hurricane Melissa before its first landfall.

Category 5 Hurricane Melissa has displaced 900 families in Haiti, with 3,653 people in the Grand Sud region’s shelters as the Atlantic storm – one of the strongest on record – approaches nearby Jamaica.

US forecasters say Hurricane Melissa will pass near or over Jamaica as a major storm early Tuesday, before moving toward Cuba later that night. It is then expected to track across the southeastern Bahamas on Wednesday.

Hurricane Melissa is set to bring catastrophic winds, flooding and storm surge to Jamaica, forecasters have warned.

Hurricane Melissa is barrelling towards Cuba after leaving a trail of destruction in Jamaica, though the full extent of its impact remains unclear. The storm has strengthened back up to Category 4. Follow the latest below.

Up to 40 inches of rain, 13 feet of storm surge and 160 mph sustained winds will cause “extensive infrastructure damage” that will cut off communities, the National Hurricane Center warned. Melissa has already killed three people in Haiti and Jamaica each and one person in the Dominican Republic.

Melissa’s 185 mph winds rival the most intense Atlantic storms on record. The Category 5 hurricane is threatening Jamaica with a storm surge of up to 13 feet.