Tropical Storm Melissa to Hit Jamaica this Week
by Daniel McCarthy
Photo: National Hurricane Center
The 2025 Atlantic hurricane season is not yet dead, as another storm is brewing in the Caribbean.
Tropical Storm Melissa is barreling toward Jamaica and Haiti on Wednesday morning, moving at 7 mph from its position about 300 miles south-southwest of Port-au-Prince. The National Hurricane Center (NHC) expects Melissa to hit Jamaica and then Haiti late this week and this weekend.
The NHC does not currently expect the storm to travel beyond the Caribbean. It does, however, expect Melissa to reach hurricane status “during the next few days.”
As of Wednesday morning, the NHC has a Tropical Storm Watch in effect for Jamaica and a Hurricane Watch in effect for the southwestern peninsula of Haiti from the border with the Dominican Republic to Port-au-Prince. The more consequential warning for the travel industry is that Jamaica warning—Haiti has not been a major destination for travelers since July 2023, and Royal Caribbean, which has the largest presence on the island, is not planning on sailing to Labadee until at the earliest May 2026.
Melissa could dump 5 to 10 inches of rain in the southern Dominican Republic, southern Haiti, and eastern Jamaica through Saturday.
There are currently no travel alerts for Melissa from any major airline, but that could change quickly as the storm moves towards Jamaica. American Airlines, JetBlue, United, and Spirit are all scheduled to fly into Montego Bay (MBJ) and Kingston (KIN) this week.
