#ClimateChange boosted #HurricaneMelissa’s destructive winds and rain, analysis finds

By ISABELLA O’MALLEY
Updated 10:18 AM EST, November 6, 2025

"Human-caused climate change boosted the destructive winds and rain unleashed by Hurricane Melissa and increased the temperatures and humidity that fueled the storm, according to an analysis released Thursday.

"Melissa was one of the strongest Atlantic hurricanes to make landfall and brought destructive weather to #Jamaica, #Haiti, #DominicanRepublic and #Cuba, causing dozens of deaths across the #Caribbean. Roofs were torn off of homes, hospitals were damaged, roads were blocked by landslides and crop fields were ruined.

"The rapid analysis by World Weather Attribution found that climate change increased Melissa’s maximum wind speeds by 7% and made the rainfall near the center of the storm 16% more intense. The scientists also wrote that the temperature and humidity in which the storm intensified were made six times more likely due to climate change compared to a #PreIndustrial world."

https://apnews.com/article/hurricane-melissa-climate-change-rain-wind-jamaica-41cf1c5d771aec9e5290c6a427660c9e

#ClimateCrisis #SuperHurricanes
#RecordBreaking #Weather #ExtremeWeather #ExtremeWx #Capitalism #CapitalismKills #IndustrialAge

#HurricaneMelissa's 252-mph wind gust sets new record

A weather instrument dropped from a Hurricane Hunter plane during Hurricane Melissa measured the highest winds on record for such an instrument.

By Jesse Ferrell, AccuWeather meteorologist and senior weather editor

Published Nov 20, 2025

Excerpt: "The 252-mph wind gust measured by the dropsonde in Hurricane Melissa was recorded at 827 feet (250 meters) above the ocean on Oct. 28, the same day Melissa made landfall in Jamaica as a Category 5 storm. The previous record for a dropsonde measurement was 248 mph, taken during Typhoon Megi over the Western Pacific in 2010.

"Because the reading wasn't taken at the Earth's surface, it does not count officially in the World Meteorological Organization's world wind records. The official world wind record remains 253 mph, clocked by an automated weather station during Tropical Cyclone Olivia on April 10, 1996, at #BarrowIsland, Australia. The wind record for the Northern Hemisphere is 231 mph at #MountWashington, New Hampshire.

"While a wind speed of 302 mph was recorded by a Doppler radar in 1999 during a tornado in Oklahoma, that measurement also occurred above the Earth's surface and is not recognized in the official WMO records."

Read more:
https://www.accuweather.com/en/weather-news/hurricane-melissas-252-mph-wind-gust-sets-new-record/1836720

#ClimateChange #SuperHurricanes #RecordBreaking #Weather #ExtremeWeather