October 28, 2025
1 min read
Hurricane Melissa Images Reveal a Monster Storm for the Record Books
These images of Hurricane Melissa show the Category 5 storm in all its power
Cooperative Institute for Research in the Atmosphere, Colorado State University/National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
With maximum sustained winds of 185 miles per hour as it batters the Caribbean island of Jamaica on Tuesday, Hurricane Melissa is a beast of a storm. Satellite and other images starkly illustrate Melissa’s monstrosity, from its rapid intensification to the sheer power of the convection at its core. Here’s an inside look at one of the strongest storms to ever make landfall in the Atlantic since recordkeeping began.
Melissa’s cold cloud tops underscore the storm’s strength. The engine at the heart of any tropical cyclone is the convection powered by the temperature difference between the warm sea surface and the cold atmosphere at the top of the storm, where air flows out.
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Lt. Col. Mark Withee, U.S. Air Force
On October 27 a crew from the Air Force’s “Hurricane Hunters,” or 53rd Weather Reconnaissance Squadron, flies through Hurricane Melissa to collect information for the National Hurricane Center.
Lt. Col. Mark Withee, U.S. Air Force
The calm, clear eye of Melissa appears with the “stadium effect” of the clouds in the eye wall—where the strongest winds are—as seen from the Hurricane Hunters aircraft.
Another view shows Melissa’s central eye, which looks like a textbook eye for a strong hurricane.
Lightning flashes in the eye wall of Category 5 Melissa are a marker of how strong the storm is. It reached a central pressure of 892 millibars, among the lowest ever recorded in the Atlantic Ocean. It is tied as the third most intense Atlantic storm with the devastating 1935 Labor Day hurricane.
Hurricane Melissa swirls above the Caribbean Sea in fading sunlight on October 26.
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