Climate scientists have long warned that warming oceans are making explosive storm development more common
Hurricane Melissa live updates
The extraordinary intensification of Hurricane Melissa, set to be one of the strongest storms to ever hit Jamaica, is probably a symptom of the rapid heating of the world’s oceans, scientists have said.
Melissa was a tropical storm on Saturday, before exploding in strength to a category 4 hurricane early on Sunday. The storm’s winds escalated from 70mph to 140mph in just a day, one of the fastest intensifications on record in the Atlantic Ocean.
On Monday morning, the US’s National Hurricane Center upgraded Melissa further to a category 5 storm, with winds of up to 160mph (260km/h). The hurricane is inching slowly towards Jamaica, where it is feared it will cause catastrophic flooding and landslides, before crossing Cuba and the Bahamas by Wednesday.
