(MENAFN- Live Mint) Hurricane Melissa is set to make landfall in Jamaica on Tuesday as a catastrophic Category 5 storm. With winds of more than 170 mph, Melissa is now the strongest storm to roam Earth in 2025, CNN reported on Monday.

Meanwhile, NBC news report also claimed that Melissa is now the most powerful storm of the 2025 Atlantic hurricane season and is expected to be the strongest storm to hit Jamaica since Hurricane Gilbert in 1988.

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According to the National Hurricane Center, Melissa's maximum sustained winds are 175 mph (282km/h) – category five – with stronger gusts as of 2 pm ET. That's a 10 mph increase in winds from the 11 am ET advisory.

If Melissa makes landfall as a Category 5 hurricane, which it is currently forecast to do, it will be the first Category 5 to make landfall on Jamaic, and therefore the strongest hurricane to ever make landfall on Jamaica.

Before Melissa, the strongest hurricane to strike Jamaica was the 130-mph Category 4 Gilbert n 1988.

A look at Melissa's historic intensification

Hurricane Melissa is one of the fastest-growing hurricanes. It took only 18 hours to go from a tropical storm to a major Category 4 hurricane - placing it among top five fastest storms in the Atlantic to grow to Category 4 since 1975, according to an NBC News analysis of government storm data.

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The storm is among the fastest in the Atlantic to go from Category 1 formation to Category 4 in the past 50 years.

In the past, some hurricanes took only 15 hours to intensify into Category 4. They were Hurricane Ike (2008) and Hurricane Wilma (2005).

What makes a storm the "strongest"?

Hurricanes, known generically as tropical cyclones, are one of nature's most powerful storms. They produce strong winds, storm surge flooding, and heavy rainfall that can lead to inland flooding, tornadoes, and rip currents, the NOAA reported.

Pressure, wind speed and damage incurred are key to determining how strong the storm is. As storm systems strengthen into hurricanes, the surface winds move continuously in a circular motion.

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For a hurricane, the wind speed must be between 74 MPH and 110 MPH, and for the 'Major Hurricane', the wind speed may reach to more than 180 mph, according to the he National Hurricane Center (NHC).

List of some of the "strongest", Category 5 storms of 2025

Three Category 5 hurricanes - the maximum strength - have developed in the 2025 Atlantic hurricane season, something that hasn't happened in 20 years.

1. In August, Hurricane Erin reached Category 5 strength but never made the landfall. Hurricane Erin's speed reached a maximum sustained wind of 160 mph (260 km/h) when it became a Category 5 storm on August 16, 2025. But Erin didn't remain Category 5 for long.

Also Read | Hurricane Melissa path: Jamaica on high alert as storm draws dangerously close

2. Later, in September, Hurricane Humberto attained Category 5 strength. It attained the highest wind speed of 160 mph.

3. Hurrican Melissa became the latest storm to join the Category 5 club on October 27 while it was south of Jamaica.

Melissa, Humberto and Erin were added to the list of rare storms in 2025, the Weather Channel reported.

Also Read | Hurricane Melissa path: Jamaica on high alert as storm draws dangerously close

The last - and only other - Atlantic hurricane season with at least three Category 5 hurricanes was the record-smashing 2005 season.

That year, Emily, Katrina, Rita and Wilma each attained Category 5 status, the most of any single year, the report added.

Category 5 is the highest rating a hurricane can reach

Maximum sustained winds of 157 mph or higher on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale are required for a hurricane to reach Category intensity.

Prior to Humberto, there had only been 42 such Category 5 hurricanes in the Atlantic Basin since 1924, according to NOAA's historical database.

The 2025 season marks the fourth year in a row that there has been at least one Cat 5 Atlantic hurricane.

Other 'record strongest" Hurricanes

1. Hurricane Patricia: Patricia's maximum sustained winds topped out at an incredible 215 mph (185 knots) on October 23, 2015, in the Western Hemisphere. It made landfall as a Category 4 hurricane with top winds of 150 mph near Playa Cuixmala in Jalisco state of southwest Mexico.

2. Hurricanes Allen (1980), Isabel (2003) and Ivan (2004) each soared to Category 5 intensity three separate times in their journeys.

3. The November 1932 Cuba hurricane (78 hours) and Hurricane Irma in 2007 (77 hours) spent the longest combined time at Category 5 strength, according to NOAA's database.

Only four hurricanes on record made landfall in US at Category 5 intensity:

1. Hurricane Michael in the Florida Panhandle in October 2018.

2. Hurricane Andrew in 1992 in South Florida

3. Hurricane Camille in 1969 on the Mississippi Gulf Coast

4. The 1935 Labor Day hurricane in the Florida Keys.

Hurricane Ian very nearly did that in 2022, but slowed down to a still-intense Category 4 hurricane when it made landfall, according to the Weather Channel.

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