Hurricane Melissa made landfall in Cuba early Wednesday, October 29, 2025. The storm is described as an “extremely dangerous” Category 3 hurricane.
On Tuesday, the storm made landfall in Jamaica as a Category 5 hurricane. The storm is projected to strike Bahamas later Wednesday.
The storm had 120 mph sustained winds when it made landfall in Cuba and was moving 10 mph.
Hurricane Melissa, a monstrous Category 5 storm with 185 mph winds, slammed into Jamaica on Tuesday, causing widespread devastation. It’s the is the most powerful storm since 1850.
It was downgraded to a Category 3 as it made landfall in Cuba early Wednesday.
Follow the storm’s path with our live tracker:
The storm is about 770 miles wide – which is close to the size of Texas.
The incredibly powerful storm has sustained winds of 115 mph and is moving about 12 mph.
The NHS said the storm will bring “damaging winds, flooding rains, and dangerous storm surge” as it moves over eastern Cuba.
The storm is one of the strongest to ever form in the Atlantic after its sustained winds reached 185 mph. Hurricane Allen in 1980 had 190 mph winds.
Hurricane Melissa made landfall on the southern coast of eastern Cuba on Wednesday morning.
The Category 3 storm touched down near the city of Chivirico in the province of Santiago de Cuba at 3:10 a.m.
Maximum sustained winds near 120 mph were reported by the National Weather Service.
The “Extremely Dangerous” storm is currently moving at 10 mph and is expected to blow across the island nation over the next five hours before making its way northeast towards the Bahamas.
Storm surge on the southern coast is projected to reach between 8 feet and 12 feet above normal tide heights with 10 to 20 inches of rain, CNN reported.
Hurricane Melissa was downgraded to an “extremely dangerous” Category 3 storm as landfall with Cuba is imminent, the National Weather Service announced.
The powerful cyclone was tracking less than 80 miles south of Cuba at 2 a.m. and is projected to strike the southeastern part of the island nation within hours.
Maximum sustained wind speeds were measured at 125 mph with higher gusts.
Melissa will blow over the eastern end of Cuba before weakening to a Cat. 2 storm headed for the Bahamas later in the morning.
Hurricane Melissa is now producing sustained winds of 130 mph as it barrels toward southeastern Cuba.
The National Hurricane Center said the storm is strengthening and is expected to make landfall within the next few hours as a highly ferocious Category 4 storm.
The storm is about 110 miles southwest of Guantánamo, moving northeast at 9 mph, and will cross eastern Cuba overnight before reaching the Bahamas on Wednesday.
Jamaica, the Turks and Caicos Islands, and Haiti are now under a Tropical Storm Warning as conditions ease, and the previous Hurricane Warning has been lifted.
However, the National Hurricane Center has warned residents in Jamaica to remain in a safe shelter.
Hurricane-force winds extend up to 30 miles from the storm’s center, while tropical-storm-force winds reach outward as far as 195 miles.
Nearly 300,000 people have already been evacuated in Cuba while scores more are seeking shelter with friends and relatives as Hurricane Melissa inches closer, officials said.
Approximately 281,000 people have been evacuated and taken to 101 evacuation centers in the eastern province of Santiago de Cuba — roughly half the estimated total population in that region.
Some low-lying or coastal communities were completely evacuated, save for personnel tasked with safeguarding the property, Beatriz Johnson Urrutia, president of the Provincial Defense Council and first secretary of the Cuban Communist Party in the eastern province of Santiago de Cuba, said.
Earlier Tuesday morning, United Nations spokesperson Stephenie Durjarric told reporters that Cuban authorities planned “to evacuate about half a million people to safer ground” ahead of Hurricane Melissa.
The hurricane has since been downgraded to a Category 3 storm, but the damage is still expected to be severe.
The UN assured it was preparing humanitarian aid for Jamaica, Cuba and Haiti.
China has already sent hundreds of “family kits” containing basics including toothbrushes, thermal blankets, and silverware to its communist counterpart, Hua Xin, China’s ambassador to Cuba, wrote on X.
The center anticipates that the hurricane will still drop upwards of 20 inches of rain and usher in more damaging winds to the eastern part of Cuba.
Cuba is bracing for hurricane conditions through Wednesday morning while Haiti expects smoother, but still treacherous, tropical storm conditions.
“Melissa is expected to remain a powerful hurricane when it moves across Cuba, the Bahamas, and near Bermuda,” the NHC said.
Hurricane Melissa slammed into Jamaica as one of the most powerful cyclones ever recorded — with the United Nations declaring the disaster “the storm of the century.”
Melissa smashed into Jamaica’s southwestern coast just after 1 p.m. ET Tuesday as a Category 5 storm, with sustained winds blowing a devastating 185 mph.
It’s only the second Atlantic hurricane to ever make landfall with wind speeds that high — the other was 1935’s Labor Day Hurricane, which killed hundreds when it smashed into Florida.
The island nation of 2.8 million shut down all airports, and as many as 25,000 tourists were trapped.
And Melissa could be shaping up to be a catastrophe of similar proportions, with experts cautioning that a humanitarian disaster could unfold after the entire island nation was enveloped by the screaming winds.
