“Oh my Jesus Christ,” NBC6’s hurricane specialist John Morales said on air on Tuesday during NBC6’s continuing coverage on Hurricane Melissa as it was set to make landfall as a Category 5 storm in Jamaica.
The comment came as NBC6 meteorologist Adam Berg informed him that the National Hurricane Center had released a new advisory at 9 a.m.
“180 [mph] now,” Berg said, referring to the hurricane’s maximum sustained winds.
“OK 180, and what’s the pressure?” Morales replied.
“Pressure is now down to 896 [mb],” Berg said.
“Oh my Jesus Christ,” Morales said, bringing his hand to his forehead and pausing.
The barometric pressure of the eye of a hurricane will determine how strong it is, and the lower the pressure, the stronger and more dangerous the hurricane.
Melissa’s barometric pressure was already the strongest ever recorded so late in the Atlantic hurricane season when Morales got on air before 6 a.m.
But then it dropped.
“Alright, I’m gonna hold it together here,” Morales said. “So 896 millibars is stronger than Hurricane Milton when it made that run last year. Remember? Remember my viral moment last year? You know, 50 millibars in 10 hours? It got down to 897 millibars. Now it turns out Melissa has broken or gone past Milton’s record.”
That makes Melissa the second strongest storm among all recorded hurricanes in October and November.
“There’s only one hurricane in October and November in the Atlantic basin that’s ever been stronger, and that is Hurricane Wilma from 20 years ago,” Morales said.
Wilma’s record sits at 882 millibars. After Melissa and Milton, hurricanes Rafael and Noel come in 4th and 5th strongest for October and November, with barometric pressures of 965 millibars and 966 millibars, respectively.
“So this is all history,” Morales said. “It’s all bad news, especially for Jamaica.”