“Melissa is moving unusually slow – reportedly at 2 to 5 miles per hour – which means that it became particularly intense before striking Jamaica’s southwest coast. Similarly, it spent longer over Jamaica, thus exposing everything in its track to prolonged impacts,” Prof Simon told The Independent.

The Atlantic hurricane season was much different one year ago than the lucky streak that has been in place in 2025 so far. On Oct. 7, 2024, one year ago today, Hurricane Milton muscled up from a Category 2 storm in the southwest Gulf that morning to a ...