{"id":67608,"date":"2025-10-28T17:59:00","date_gmt":"2025-10-28T17:59:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/?p=67608"},"modified":"2026-02-25T18:45:37","modified_gmt":"2026-02-25T18:45:37","slug":"melissa-makes-landfall-on-jamaica-as-a-category-5-hurricane","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/archives\/67608","title":{"rendered":"Category 5 Hurricane Melissa makes landfall on Jamaica"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/a>

1-minute GOES-19 Visible images (left) and Infrared images (right) with plots of 1-minute GOES-19 GLM Flash Points (white dots), from 1131-1800 UTC on 28 October [click to play MP4 animation]<\/p><\/div>\n

1-minute Mesoscale Domain Sector GOES-19 (GOES-East)<\/em>\u00a0Visible and Infrared images (above)<\/strong><\/em> showed Category 5 Hurricane Melissa<\/strong><\/a> as it made landfall along the far southwest coast of Jamaica around 1700 UTC<\/strong><\/a> on 28 October 2025. Low-altitude mesovortices were evident within the eye — and GLM<\/strong><\/a> Flash Points revealed abundant lightning activity within the inner eyewall region.<\/p>\n

1-minute GOES-19 Infrared images displayed using RealEarth<\/strong><\/a> (below)<\/strong><\/em> indicated that the center of the eye of Melissa passed over White House, Jamaica during landfall — with the right-front quadrant of the inner eyewall (where wind damage and storm surge is often highest) passing over Black River.<\/p>\n

<\/a>

1-minute GOES-19 Infrared images displayed with Google Maps labels of cities and roads, from 1500-2100 UTC on 28 October [click to play MP4 animation]<\/p><\/div>\n

Shortly after Melissa made landfall, the eye quickly became cloud-filled as the hurricane moved inland and interacted with topography across the western part of Jamaica (below)<\/strong><\/em>.<\/p>\n

<\/a>

1-minute GOES-19 Visible images (left) and Topography+Visible images (right) with plots of GLM Flash Points, from 1451-1900 UTC on 28 October [click to play MP4 animation]<\/p><\/div>\n

A larger-scale view of GOES-19 CIMSS True Color RGB images created using Geo2Grid<\/strong><\/a> (below)<\/em><\/strong> indicated that after landfall, the eye of Melissa remained cloud-filled as the hurricane finished crossing the island and eventually emerged over water north of Jamaica around 2100 UTC.\u00a0<\/p>\n

<\/a>

1-minute CIMSS True Color RGB images, from 1131-2159 UTC on 28 October (courtesy Dave Stettner, CIMSS) [click to play MP4 animation]<\/p><\/div>\n

A larger-scale view of 1-minute GOES-19 Infrared images during the 5 hours leading up to landfall is shown below — which revealed a continual series of cloud-top gravity waves propagating radially outward from the eye of Melissa. The radius of hurricane-force winds appeared to be rather small, since surface wind speeds at the Kingston METAR site in eastern Jamaica were only in the 20-40 kt range during that time period.<\/p>\n

<\/a>

1-minute GOES-19 Infrared images with plots of 1-minute GOES-19 GLM Flash Points, from 1401-1900 UTC on 28 October [click to play MP4 animation]<\/p><\/div>\n

A GMI Microwave image (below)<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0displayed the compact eye and eyewall of Melissa about 3 hours prior to landfall.<\/p>\n

GMI Microwave image at 1406 UTC on 28 October<\/p><\/div>\n

Just prior to landfall, Melissa was moving through an environment characterized by fairly low values of deep-layer wind shear<\/strong><\/a> (below)<\/strong><\/em>.<\/p>\n

GOES-19 Infrared images, with an overlay of contours and streamlines of deep-layer wind shear at 1600 UTC on 28 October<\/p><\/div>\n

A Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) image (source<\/strong><\/a>) at 1110 UTC (below)<\/strong><\/em> retrieved a maximum wind velocity value of 143 kts in the NW quadrant<\/strong><\/a> of Melissa.<\/p>\n

<\/a>

RADARSAT-2 Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) image at 1110 UTC on 28 October [click to enlarge]<\/p><\/div>\n

It is noteworthy that the Advanced Dvorak Technique<\/strong><\/a> (ADT) satellite-derived intensity estimate peaked at 185 kts for Melissa (below)<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0— which according to the developer at CIMSS is the highest value on record for any tropical cyclone since the ADT was implemented.<\/p>\n

<\/a>

Plot of Advanced Dvorak Technique (ADT) values for Melissa [click to enlarge]<\/p><\/div>\n

NOTE<\/strong>: The National Hurricane Center published its post-analysis and Tropical Cyclone Report for Melissa on 25 February 2026<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n

219-kt peak wind would be the highest wind value a dropsonde has ever recorded, ahead of 215-kt value in Super Typhoon Megi in 2010 & the 210 kt recorded just yesterday in #Hurricane #Melissa.Still needs to be validated\u2026 so this data is preliminary.<\/p>— Philippe Papin (@pppapin.bsky.social)<\/a> 2025-10-28T15:48:47.358Z<\/a><\/blockquote>