Tropical Storm Melissa continued its slow slog across the Caribbean Sea on the morning of Oct. 25, and forecasters said the storm is expected to rapidly intensify over the next 24 hours, potentially powering up to a Category 4 or 5 hurricane with winds over 150 mph.

Melissa is expected to strengthen from a tropical storm into a major hurricane and bring "catastrophic" flash flooding and landslides to Jamaica, Haiti and the Dominican Republic

Tropical Storm Melissa is nearly stationary in the central Caribbean, with forecasters warning it could soon strengthen and brush past Jamaica as a powerful hurricane.

Melissa is currently the only active tropical system in the Atlantic basin. As of Friday night, the storm remains nearly stationary, drifting north at just 2 mph. Maximum sustained winds are around 65 mph—just below the 75 mph threshold needed to reach Category 1 hurricane status.

We will be very fortunate if Melissa does not cause a humanitarian disaster, even as Florida is again in the clear of a strange 2025 hurricane season.

Tropical Storm Melissa is set to intensify this weekend, and Jamaica and other Caribbean islands are bracing for harsh weather, forecasters with the National Hurricane Center in Miami said Thursday morning.

Haiti is expected to see catastrophic flash floods and landslides early next week causing “extensive infrastructural damage and potentially prolonged isolation of communities.” The southwestern peninsula of Haiti, from the border of the Dominican Republic to Port-au-Prince, was placed under a hurricane watch and a tropical-storm warning.