The water around Jamaica had been simmering all summer. By the time Hurricane Melissa roared ashore Tuesday, that uber-warm Caribbean Sea had helped turn it into a monster: a Category 5 storm with winds reaching 185 miles an hour, tied for the strongest hurricane to strike land in the Atlantic.
Experts say it’s a visceral example of what climate change can do to the planet’s most fearsome storms — supercharging them with heat and moisture until they become almost unrecognizable from the Atlantic hurricanes of the past.
Jamaica is waking up to devastation, with severe damage to infrastructure including the electric grid, hospitals and schools. But the true extent of the damage in the hardest-hit communities may take days to uncover, as rescue workers and families struggle to reach them.
Three days before landfall, Hurricane Melissa underwent two periods of rapid intensification as it traversed oc
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