Hurricane Melissa made more intense and destructive by climate change, study says

The study also concludes that climate change increased the maximum wind speeds experienced during Hurricane Melissa by 7%.

“Hurricane Melissa’s catastrophic landfall in Jamaica is not an anomaly, it is the canary in the coal mine. When a storm can explosively intensify [in less than three days]…we are witnessing the dangerous new reality of our warming world,” according to Jayaka Campbell, Senior Lecturer at the University of the West Indies, Jamaica.

While Jamaica is one of the more developed nations of the Caribbean with some structures built to withstand hurricane-force conditions, the same is not true for other countries.

In Cuba sufficient warnings were given so that more than 700 thousand people were safely evacuated but houses, roads, crucial infrastructure and agricultural areas suffered severe damage that will take years to fully recover from.

With COP30, the annual United Nations Climate Change conference, starting on 10 November in Belém, Brazil this is a timely reminder of the consequences of climate change on under-developed nations.

“This is a critical moment for countries to act, ensuring that climate finance reaches those most exposed to climate impacts, while committing to a real transition away from fossil fuels,” said Arnoldo Bezanilla, Researcher at the Center for Atmospheric Physics, Cuba.