The Air Force has captured stunning footage from inside the eye of Hurricane Melissa, which is expected to cause widespread damage when it makes landfall in Jamaica.
The 53rd Weather Reconnaissance Squadron, known as the “Hurricane Hunters,” entered the hurricane Monday morning (October 27) to collect data for the National Hurricane Center, News18 reported.
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Today was the crew’s fifth and final passage through Hurricane Melissa. Enter from the northwest corner and exit from the southeast corner just after noon. pic.twitter.com/BVtyIlZpsxOctober 27, 2025
The weather forecast for the Caribbean has been very ominous for days now. AccuWeather meteorologists have warned that the hurricane could cause a humanitarian crisis, and the U.S. National Hurricane Center said the life-threatening storm is expected to bring “catastrophic flash flooding, landslides and destructive winds.”
According to Reuters, World Meteorological Organization tropical cyclone expert Anne-Claire Fontan told a press conference that Hurricane Melissa would be the “storm of the century” for Jamaica. Jamaica has not been hit by a hurricane since Hurricane Sandy, a Category 1 storm, made landfall in 2012, and has never experienced direct damage from a Category 5 storm. The storm has already killed three people on the island.
Near-record warm waters in the Caribbean are making Melissa even stronger as it gradually approaches Jamaica. Authorities in the country urged people to evacuate immediately and said many areas would not survive the storm, the Guardian reported.
A thread of videos from today’s flight to Hurricane Melissa In this first video, we are approaching from the southeast just after sunrise, and the bright arc in the far northwest eyewall is the light just starting to pass over the crest from behind us. pic.twitter.com/qGdpp7lbCNOctober 27, 2025
AccuWeather reports that the threat to life could be similar to Hurricane Dorian in 2019, which hit the Bahamas, and Hurricane Andrew, which hit the southeastern United States and the Bahamas in 1992. The official death toll from Hurricane Dorian is 74 with an additional 282 missing, while Hurricane Andrew caused 65 direct deaths, making it the most devastating hurricane in Florida history.
Hurricane Melissa also threatens countries such as Haiti, the Dominican Republic, and Cuba, where at least four hurricane-related deaths have already been reported.
Meteorologists classify hurricanes from 1 to 5 based on maximum sustained wind speed. Anything above Category 2 is considered a major hurricane. A hurricane reaches Category 5 status when it has sustained winds of at least 157 miles per hour (252 km/h).
On Monday, Hurricane Melissa strengthened to wind speeds of 175 miles per hour (282 kilometers per hour), exceeding that threshold and potentially becoming the strongest hurricane of 2025 and the most powerful hurricane ever recorded in the late Atlantic hurricane season (early June to late November), AccuWeather reported.
As climate change warms the atmosphere and seawater, the number of hurricanes in the Atlantic Ocean is rapidly increasing. Since March 2023, average sea surface temperatures around the world have been breaking records, and rising ocean temperatures are adding more energy to hurricanes as they grow.
