(NEXSTAR) — Hurricane Melissa has become one of the strongest Atlantic storms on record, reaching the rare strength of Category 5 on Monday.

The "extremely dangerous" storm has its sights on Jamaica as of Tuesday, the National Hurricane Center said. As of 1 p.m. ET, the NHC said Melissa had made landfall in New Hope, Jamaica, with 185 mph winds.

The NHC said Melissa is moving at about 9 mph toward the north-northeast as of early Tuesday afternoon. It's slow speed it expected to keep it over Jamaica through the day before Melissa moves toward southeastern Cuba Wednesday morning.

"Can't remember a storm moving this slowly for this long," Rebecca Barry, a meteorologist at Nexstar's WFLA, remarked Tuesday during a broadcast of "Tracking the Tropics." Winds are so strong, according to Barry,

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