Jamaica prepares for Hurricane Melissa - the world's strongest storm of 2025

People in Jamaica are leaving their homes for safer areas and shops, businesses and schools are preparing for the arrival of Hurricane Melissa.

A Category 5 hurricane - the most powerful level there is - it is the strongest storm anywhere in the world this year.

Experts say it could become the most powerful to ever hit Jamaica and is expected to bring high winds and flooding.

The Jamaican government has been preparing for the storm with Prime Minister Andrew Holness ordering people to leave low lying areas, take shelter and telling all schools to close and move their lessons online.

How Jamaica is preparing for Hurricane Melissa

People sit in a shelter in Kingston, Jamaica

BBC reporter Will Grant, in Jamaica, says: "The fear is that as much as 102 centimetres of rain could be dumped on Jamaica within a matter of hours, leading to flash flooding, rivers bursting their banks and mudslides.

"Thousands of residents have taken refuge in government storm shelters."

BBC Weather presenter Sarah Keith-Lucas explains: "Melissa is a particularly powerful, large and slow-moving hurricane. Hurricanes need warm waters to provide their fuel, and higher heat on the sea surface has been injecting extra energy into the storm system.

"The waters in the western Caribbean are currently close to 30C, around two to three Celsius above average for the time of year."

This extra warmth has made the storm stronger and kept it going longer.

Because Melissa is moving slowly, it may stay over the island longer and cause more damage.

The country's Information Minister, Dana Morris Dixon, told the BBC the government has done everything it can to prepare for a storm "the likes of which we have never seen."

The last hurricane to directly hit Jamaica was 37 years ago, and she urged people to take this one seriously.

What is a hurricane?

A hurricane is a huge, spinning storm that forms over warm ocean water. It brings strong winds, heavy rain, and sometimes big waves called storm surges that can flood coastal areas.

Hurricanes are rated using the Saffir–Simpson scale, from Category 1 (weakest) to Category 5 (strongest).

A Category 5 hurricane has winds stronger than 157 mph (252 km/h) and can cause massive damage.

Meteorologist and storm chaser Matthew Cappucci told the BBC: "Nobody in Jamaica has lived through anything comparable to what they're going to get. It is extremely rare to get a category five with impact anywhere on Earth."

BBC Weather's Sarah Keith-Lucas says although hurricanes are common for Jamaica - direct hits are rarer.

"Hurricane season runs from June to November, and peaks in Jamaica in the second half of October.

"Most years the island will feel the impacts of two or three tropical storms or hurricanes, but it is relatively rare for these storms to make a direct landfall.

"Only three hurricanes have directly hit Jamaica since 1988."

As the storm passes Jamaica, there is expected to be a significant impact for other countries including Cuba, Haiti, The Dominican Republic and Bahamas, with severe winds and heavy rain.