1h agoTue 28 Oct 2025 at 3:48pmWhat we know

As Hurricane Melissa crosses the Jamaican coast, here’s the situation as it stands:

The hurricane is currently a Category Five, packing wind gusts of up to 300 kilometres an hour.Authorities are anticipating widespread devastation in Jamaica.Storm surges of up to four metres are expected alongside rainfall totals of 700 millimetres, with fears that could cause “catastrophic flash flooding and landslides”.Hurricane Melissa is being fuelled by warm waters in the Caribbean.The Red Cross says up to 1.5 million people in Jamaica are expected to be impacted by the storm.21m agoTue 28 Oct 2025 at 5:08pmBREAKING: Hurricane Melissa officially makes landfall

The US National Hurricane Center says Hurricane Melissa has made landfall in Jamaica as a category five hurricane.

The storm is one of the most powerful hurricane landfalls on record in the Atlantic basin, the NHC added.

It is currently just after 12pm in Jamaica.

31m agoTue 28 Oct 2025 at 4:58pm

Latest satellite image from US hurricane tracker

The Cooperative Institute for Research in the Atmosphere, or CIRA, has been publishing track maps and satellite images of Hurricane Melissa as it does with many storms.

This is the latest enhanced infrared image of the storm posted by the Colorado-based institute, from about 30 minutes ago.

You can see at the centre of the storm already appearing to cross the coast.

A false-colour image showing the centre of the storm in red with a well defined eye at the centre.(Supplied: CIRA)

37m agoTue 28 Oct 2025 at 4:51pm

Hundreds of thousands now without power in Jamaica

Multiple news organisations, including Reuters, are now reporting that hundreds of thousands of residents in the island nation are without power.

These cuts were due to earlier damage from Hurricane Melissa, which has been lashing Jamaica well before making landfall.

The Category 5 storm, the strongest possible on the Saffir-Simpson scale, was about 55 km southeast of the Jamaican resort town of Negril as of 1600 GMT (3am AEDT) and packing maximum sustained winds of 295 km per hour.

Reporting with Reuters

41m agoTue 28 Oct 2025 at 4:47pm

📷: The Caribbean battens down ahead of Melissa

As Hurricane Melissa makes its way slowly towards Jamaica, here’s some images courtesy of the AP’s Matias Delacroix.

A sole palm tree on a coastal pier being blown by the wind as waves crash against it.A group of people sheltering inside an evacuation centre.A rainy street with trees and branches strewn across it.A person in a raincoat being buffeted by wind in a sea-side park.1h agoTue 28 Oct 2025 at 4:25pmHurricane Melissa to make landfall imminently

Hurricane Melissa is set to cross the Jamaican coast as the strongest storm ever recorded in the Caribbean nation since records began 174 years ago.

A map of Jamaica with a cyclone forecast track map overlaid, showing Melissa about to cross the coast.(Google Maps)

The AP reported that Melissa was packing sustained winds up to 295 kilometres an hour.

The island’s highest mountains could see wind gusts of over 321 kilometres an hour.

The storm has already been blamed for at least seven deaths in the Caribbean — three in Jamaica, three in Haiti and one in the Dominican Republic.

Reporting with AP

1h agoTue 28 Oct 2025 at 4:12pm

‘Storm of the century’ as seen from space

Satellite images taken by NOAA and the CIRA, both American government agencies, show Hurricane Melissa’s size and strength.

The tropical storm is barreling through the Caribbean at Category Five strength.

Pictures show the hurricane has a well defined eye, typical of higher intensity hurricanes and cyclones.

Melissa is considered by meteorologists to be the strongest storm so far in 2025.

A large hurricane captured from a satellite over the Caribbean.A close up satellite image of a well-defined eye in the middle of a tropical hurricane.

Pictures via Reuters

1h agoTue 28 Oct 2025 at 4:11pm

‘Not the time to be brave’

Jamaica’s local government minister Desmond McKenzie said around 6,000 people had made use of shelters, but many of the country’s 880 facilities were still in large part empty.

“Jamaica, this is not the time to be brave,” he said.

“There is still a small window of opportunity,” he said. “Let us see if we can use it wisely.”

Surges in seawater combined with rainfall — which will likely be measured in feet, not inches — could trigger deadly floods and landslides.

Reporting with AFP 

1h agoTue 28 Oct 2025 at 3:48pmGood morning and welcome to our live coverage of Hurricane Melissa

We’re online this morning to cover what authorities are describing as the “storm of the century”, which is just hours away from making landfall in Jamaica as a Category Five system.

According to the US National Hurricane Center, Hurricane Melissa was packing maximum sustained winds of 290 kilometres an hour. That’s not accounting for even faster wind gusts.

We’ll have the latest updates as they come to hand. Stay with us.