Hurricane Melissa, now a powerful Category 5 storm, is bearing down on Jamaica and is forecast to be the worst storm in the island's history. Melissa is set to bring catastrophic winds, rain, flooding and storm surge to Jamaica, where residents and tourists are sheltering in place. Landfall is expected early Tuesday morning.

Article last updated: Monday, Oct. 27, 2025, 11 p.m. ET

Melissa could briefly bring a swell and rough seas to the U.S. East Coast after it passes the Bahamas later in the week, but because of the angle and speed at which it's moving off into the Atlantic, Roth said any coastal impacts should be short-lived.

Article last updated: Tuesday, Oct. 28, 2025, 4 a.m. ET

Hurricane Melissa is edging toward Jamaica and is set to make landfall as a historic Category 5 storm. NBC News' Tom Llamas speaks with an American couple stranded there.

Melissa strengthened into a deadly Category 5 hurricane Monday with catastrophic impacts expected across the Caribbean, similar to Sarasota last year.

The news “underscores the profound ecological toll that Hurricane Melissa will have on Jamaica’s biodiversity,” said one expert on the island.

"It is more than kind of distressing because you don't know when and you don't know how," said Ewan Simpson, who lives in Jamaica.