Category 5 Hurricane Melissa batters Jamaica — airports closed, Hurricane Hunters probe storm

Category 5 Hurricane Melissa — the Atlantic season's strongest cyclone of 2025 — struck Jamaica, inflicting widespread damage to resorts and airports, forcing airport closures and mass flight cancellations. U.S. hurricane‑hunter flights, including a 53rd WRS WC‑130 mission on Oct. 27, encountered severe turbulence and aborted a sortie.

Discovered 2025-10-27T08:13:02.070842-07:00 | 2025-10-27T08:13:02.070842-07:00

Briefing

What Hype is tracking

  • Airport closures, infrastructure damage and widespread flight cancellations will disrupt passenger and cargo operations, force diversions and require coordinated recovery and relief logistics; this follows warnings about rapid intensification in the Atlantic season (see recent storm outlook).
  • A USAF 53rd Weather Reconnaissance Squadron WC‑130 mission aborted after severe turbulence while sampling the Category 5 storm, underscoring elevated operational risk to weather‑reconnaissance and relief flights and potential impacts on near‑term forecasting and operational decisioning.

recent storm outlook

Reported By

CAPA Skift Sky News lemonde.fr Simple Flying The Independent
Sources Tracked
49
First Seen
2025-10-27T08:13:02.070842-07:00
Latest Update
2025-11-01T06:21:01.310081-07:00
Coverage
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Sources

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