Hurricane Melissa slammed into Jamaica as one of the most powerful cyclones ever recorded — with the United Nations declaring the disaster “the storm of the century.” Melissa smashed into Jamaica’s southwestern coast just after 1 p.

Melissa is among three Atlantic hurricanes to make landfall with 185 mph winds. Another storm to do so was the Labor Day Hurricane of 1935.

The WXII 12 First Warning Weather Team is monitoring Hurricane Melissa is pulling away from the central and southern Bahamas. The winds have picked up since Wednesday and the storm has grown in size.

We all heard about the catastrophic hurricane that slammed into Jamaica last week. Hurricane Melissa rewrote the record books when it made landfall Oct. 28, near New Hope in southwestern Jamaica.

Melissa is expected to remain a powerful hurricane when it moves across Cuba, the Bahamas, and near Bermuda. Hurricane-force winds extend outward up to 30 miles from the center and tropical-storm-force winds extend outward up to 195 miles.

So, when meteorologists say a hurricane has a pressure of 965 mb or lower, it means the storm’s center has a very low atmospheric pressure, and that generally indicates a stronger, more intense hurricane with very strong winds as the atmosphere tries to balance out the pressure imbalance.

Category 5 Hurricane Melissa has made landfall already in Jamaica and Cuba, as one of the strongest hurricanes to ever make landfall.

It hit near New Hope, Jamaica, with 185 mph winds. It is officially the strongest hurricane to hit the country and one of the strongest to make landfall in the Atlantic basin. It is tied with Dorian in 2019 and 1935’s Labor Day storm, CNN reported.

The National Hurricane Center projected that Melissa will become a Category 4 system with sustained wind of at least 140 mph. Melissa will again weaken once over land, however it will likely maintain major hurricane status as it moves across the southeastern Bahamas and the Turks and Caicos late Wednesday and into Thursday.

Melissa is only the fifth Atlantic hurricane on record to achieve sustained winds of 185 m.p.h. or greater, joining the Labor Day Hurricane of 1935, Hurricane Gilbert (1988), Hurricane Wilma (2005) and Hurricane Dorian (2019).