Hurricane Melissa is already a history-making storm, landing on all-time lists for strongest Atlantic Basin hurricanes and could be the most intense Atlantic landfall on record. The strongest hurricanes in Atlantic Basin history span from the Great Depression to present day.

Hurricane Melissa is among the strongest hurricanes to have formed in the Atlantic Ocean since records were kept, ranking as one the most powerful storms in terms of both wind strength and pressure.

Melissa is only the fifth Atlantic hurricane on record to achieve sustained winds of 185 m.p.h. or greater, joining the Labor Day Hurricane of 1935, Hurricane Gilbert (1988), Hurricane Wilma (2005) and Hurricane Dorian (2019).

Lightning flashes in the eyewall of Category 5 Melissa are a marker of how strong the storm is. It reached a central pressure of 892 millibars, among the lowest ever recorded in the Atlantic Ocean. It is tied as the third-most intense Atlantic storm with the devastating 1935 Labor Day hurricane.

Meteorologist John Morales needed a moment to collect himself while reporting on Hurricane Melissa, the deadly storm making landfall in Jamaica: 'Oh my Jesus Christ.'

Footage from a U.S. Air Force weather reconnaissance flight that passed through Hurricane Melissa’s eye confirms you probably don’t want to be there. The U.S. Defense Department released the video after flying multiple passes through the Category 5 storm on Monday to collect weather data for the National Hurricane Center.

The U.S. Air Force Reserve's 53rd Weather Reconnaissance Squadron, known as the "Hurricane Hunters," were forced to turn back at one point due to heavy turbulence after flying into the eye of Hurricane Melissa on Monday.

Up to 40 inches of rain, 13 feet of storm surge and 160 mph sustained winds will cause “extensive infrastructure damage” that will cut off communities, the National Hurricane Center warned. Melissa has already killed three people in Haiti and Jamaica each and one person in the Dominican Republic.