Hurricane Melissa (2025): Rapid Report
Lincole Jiang, Victoria D. Lynch, G. Brooke Anderson, Robbie M. Parks
2025-11-17
Summary
Hurricane Melissa, the strongest tropical cyclone worldwide in 2025 thus far, was formerly an extremely powerful, erratic, and destructive tropical cyclone which made landfall in Jamaica and Cuba in October 2025. Based on IBTrACS data obtained 11/3/2025, which provides access to storms active within the last 7 days, from 2025-10-17 12:00:00 to 2025-10-31 18:00:00 UTC, 6,854,260 people experienced tropical cyclone-force (>= 17.49 m/s) winds and 3,201,706 people experienced hurricane-force (>= 32.90 m/s) winds across Jamaica, Cuba, and the Bahamas. By country, Cuba experienced the greatest overall exposure with over 4 million people exposed to tropical cyclone-force winds, while Jamaica was the only country that saw Category 5 exposure.
| Country | Population exposed (tropical cyclone-force) | Population exposed (hurricane-force) | Population exposed (category 5) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cuba | 4,026,331 | 1,966,859 | 0 |
| Jamaica | 2,814,476 | 1,234,112 | 90,373 |
| Bahamas | 13,452 | 736 | 0 |
However, when accounting for total population, we see that the percentage of population exposed is most extreme in Jamaica, where the entire population experienced tropical cyclone-force winds and nearly half experienced hurricane-force winds.
| Country | % Population exposed (tropical cyclone-force) | % Population exposed (hurricane-force) | % Population exposed (category 5) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cuba | 35.7 | 17.4 | 0.0 |
| Jamaica | 100.0 | 43.8 | 3.2 |
| Bahamas | 3.4 | 0.2 | 0.0 |
The spatial extent of the impacts is illustrated in Figure 1, which maps exposure by wind intensity threshold at second administrative unit (ADM2, US county-equivalent) level along with storm track of Melissa.
Figure 1: spatial distribution of exposure
Characterizing exposed areas
Figure 2 shows the distribution of relative deprivation (measured by population-weighted global Gridded Relative Deprivation Index, or GRDI, aggregated to ADM2 level) and population for each exposed area, categorized by exposure status.
Figure 2: Socioeconomic and population distribution of exposed areas
Furthermore, we list the top 20 areas affected (categorized by exposure status) with the most population:
- Note: GRDI, or relative deprivation values were classified into quartiles: 0-0.25 (low deprivation), 0.2501-0.5000 (moderately low), 0.5001-0.7500 (moderately high), and 0.7501-1.0 (high).