Melissa intensified Saturday afternoon into a Category 1 hurricane. It will continue to strengthen before making landfall as a Major Category 4 hurricane in Jamaica on Tuesday. The storm will drop two to three feet of rain on the island, creating catastrophic and life-threatening flash flooding and landslides.

We will be very fortunate if Melissa does not cause a humanitarian disaster, even as Florida is again in the clear of a strange 2025 hurricane season.

Though the risk to Florida is low, parts of the Caribbean are in peril. Tropical Storm Melissa is expected to power up to a major hurricane. Though its chances of affecting Florida are low, it can't be ruled out.

With the 11 p.m. Thursday advisory, Melissa was about 150 miles southeast of Kingston, Jamaica and 270 miles southwest of Port-au-Prince, Haiti, creeping north at only 3 mph and packing maximum sustained winds near 45 mph. Tropical-storm-force winds extended outward up to 140 miles from the center, underscoring the storm's broad reach.

After nine consecutive years with at least one major hurricane landfall on the Gulf Coast, in 2025, we’ve told tropical cyclones to leave us alone and they have. There has been just one weak tropical storm so far in either the Gulf or Caribbean, which ...

This year was, particularly, special for the festival. Hurricane Helene destroyed the grounds in 2024, so the festival wasn’t possible.

The hot ocean temperatures and dry air are primed for a potentially explosive hurricane to erupt, with some severe weather impacts possible for Florida.

The rescue of Trooper, a bull terrier, off Interstate 75 as Hurricane Milton approached Florida last year inspired a new state law making it a crime to abandon dogs during disasters.