Hurricane Melissa, which made landfall on Tuesday on the south coast of Jamaica, not only made history, the storm shocked hurricane experts with its abilities.

Melissa had sustained wind speeds at landfall of 185 mph, which ties for the strongest Atlantic landfall in recorded history with the 1935 Labor Day hurricane and 2019’s Hurricane Dorian.

The Labor Day storm hit the Florida Keys and killed hundreds of people, and Dorian hit Abaco in the Bahamas, killing 74 people and leaving hundreds more missing, according to the Bahamian government. The storm later caused at least 78 deaths in the United States.

Startling endurance

Hurricane’s don’t usually maintain Category 5 strength (sustained winds of 157 mph or higher) for very long.

This year’s hurricanes Humberto and Erin, which never

See Full Page