Hurricane Melissa is tearing through the Caribbean, bringing record-breaking wind and torrential rain to Jamaica – the island's first ever category 5 landfall.

What makes Melissa so alarming isn't just its size and strength, but the speed with which it became so powerful. In a single day, it exploded from a moderate storm into a major hurricane with 170mph winds.

Scientists call this "rapid intensification" . As the planet warms, this violent strengthening is becoming more common.

These storms are especially dangerous as they often catch people off guard. That's because forecasting rapid intensification, although improving, remains a huge challenge .

Better forecasting will depend on more detailed monitoring of a hurricane's inner core – especially close to the eyewall, where the s

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