Melissa Revised to 190-mph, Matching Strongest Atlantic Hurricane on Record
America’s National Hurricane Center has concluded in its final assessment that Hurricane Melissa reached peak sustained winds of 190 mph, placing it alongside Hurricane Allen as the strongest Atlantic hurricane on record for wind speed.
Revisions in the post-storm analysis raised the cyclone’s top sustained winds from 185 mph to 190 mph based on updated reconnaissance aircraft data, while maintaining the Jamaica landfall intensity at 185 mph.
With that adjustment, Melissa now shares the Atlantic wind-speed benchmark first set in 1980.
Although Allen did not strike the Caribbean as a landfalling hurricane, it was responsible for more than 220 deaths in Haiti due to destructive winds and flooding before eventually coming ashore near the Texas–Mexico border as a Category 3 system.
Central pressure readings — another core indicator of storm strength — showed Melissa bottomed out at 26.34 inches of mercury, or 892 millibars, at peak intensity.
That figure equals the measurement recorded during the Labor Day Hurricane, ranking both as the third-most intense Atlantic hurricanes ever documented by pressure.
No alteration was made to the previously reported minimum pressure in the updated review.
In Jamaica, the hurricane’s most catastrophic impacts were concentrated in the western parishes, where officials described scenes of “total devastation.”
Jamaica’s capital avoided the worst conditions as the storm tore across other sections of the island in October 2025.
After crossing Jamaica, Melissa later struck near Chivirico, Cuba, on Oct. 22 as a Category 3 hurricane.
Extreme rainfall compounded the disaster in Haiti, where isolated locations recorded more than 35 inches of precipitation.
Meteorologists also confirmed that the system set a new record for the highest wind gust ever measured by reconnaissance aircraft, a milestone verified in November 2025.
Fatalities linked to the hurricane reached 95, according to the Hurricane Center’s estimate, including 45 deaths in Jamaica, 43 in Haiti and seven elsewhere.
Agricultural losses in Jamaica were severe, with an estimated 1.25 million farm animals killed as a result of the storm’s impacts.
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