HAVANA — The first season in a decade without a U.S. hurricane landfall also featured three Category 5 hurricanes, including Melissa, one of the strongest Atlantic hurricanes on record.

The 2025 Atlantic hurricane season, which officially ends today, was the first season since 2015 to feature no U.S. hurricane hits, but a season simultaneously marred by more Category 5 hurricanes than any season besides 2005, including Hurricane Melissa, which struck Jamaica on October 28^th as the strongest landfalling Atlantic basin hurricane on record.

The tumultuous season fell dormant for a remarkable 20-day stretch through the traditional hurricane season peak in September but roared to life for a 6-week barnburner finish that accounted for 70% of the 26-week hurricane season’s overall activity.

In total, the 2025 hurricane season churned out 13 named storms and 5 hurricanes – near the long-term historical average – but the hurricanes that formed were especially strong and long-lived, pushing the seasonal scorecard, as measured by the Accumulated Cyclone Energy or ACE, to above-average levels.

(Mostly) quiet for the U.S.

After a decade brimming with over two dozen hurricane strikes, the U.S. was spared any hurricane landfalls for the first time since the 2015 hurricane season.

The stroke of good luck can be tied back to the unusual dry spell that came at the height of the season when storms are typically driven toward the U.S. as well as a persistent dip in the jet stream along the U.S. East Coast that helped turn hurricanes like Erin, Imelda, and Melissa before they could reach the U.S. mainland.

The most impactful system for the U.S. in 2025 wasn’t even a named storm, but the remnants of a short-lived tropical storm that moved inland over eastern Mexico on June 29^th. Though Barry barely had enough bluster to qualify as a tropical storm, tropical-laden air from its leftovers set the stage for the tragic flooding caused by a large thunderstorm complex moving over Central Texas during the July 4^th holiday weekend, killing at least 135 people in one of the deadliest inland flood disasters in U.S. history.

Chantal, which struck the Carolinas as a 60 mph tropical storm on July 6^th on the heels of the devastating Texas floods, was the only named storm to directly impact the U.S. this season. The storm brought significant flash flooding, with rainfall topping over 10 inches in parts of the North Carolina Piedmont, leading to dozens of high-water rescues, including areas of Chapel Hill.

New records set

Erin formed on the morning of Monday, August 11^th in the far eastern Atlantic and steadily strengthened into the season’s first hurricane four days later northeast of the Caribbean islands. The hurricane subsequently underwent extreme rapid intensification from a 75 mph Category 1 hurricane to a 160 mph Category 5 hurricane in only 24 hours. According to NOAA, this is the 5^th fastest strengthening hurricane (over 24 hours) on record by winds and the 3^rd fastest 24-hour pressure drop for any Atlantic basin hurricane on record.

Two additional Category 5 hurricanes formed during the back half of the season – Humberto on September 27^th over the open Atlantic and Melissa one month later south of Jamaica. Melissa was one of the strongest Atlantic basin hurricanes ever recorded, with its sustained 185 mph winds only eclipsed by Hurricane Allen’s 190 mph winds in August 1980. Melissa, which struck western Jamaica with 185 mph sustained winds on Tuesday, October 28^th, is also tied for the strongest landfalling hurricane on record in the Atlantic basin.

An instrument dropped inside Melissa’s southern eyewall by NOAA Hurricane Hunters shortly before it struck Jamaica on October 28^th measured a 252 mph wind gust less than 1,000 feet above the ocean surface, which we were first to report at the time. This extreme wind report was recently confirmed by NSF’s National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) as the fastest ever directly measured inside a tropical cyclone, surpassing a dropsonde-measured wind gust of 248 mph in Typhoon Megi in 2010.

With three Category 5 hurricanes, 2025 was only the second season on record to record more than two Category 5 hurricanes in a single season (2005 holds the record with four Category 5 hurricanes).

Perhaps the most esoteric record of the season goes to the dynamic hurricane duo of Humberto and Imelda which came to within about 460 miles of one another on September 30^th, the closest two hurricanes have ever been observed in the reliable satellite record (since the 1960s).

Jamaica’s long road to recovery

While the 2025 hurricane season was generally benevolent toward the U.S., the same can’t be said for Jamaica.

Storm-busting wind shear through the Caribbean was the lowest on record and water temperatures were near-record warm for the peak months of the season.

Fortunately, most systems turned before reaching the ripe Caribbean, but it only took one at the end to take full advantage and become one of the strongest hurricane strikes on record.

Over 100 deaths are estimated so far from Melissa across primarily Jamaica and Haiti, with over $10 billion in damage to Jamaica alone. For those wishing to support those recovering from Melissa, the best way is through cash donations (cash moves faster than stuff and gives survivors choices) to reputable non-profit relief organizations such as The American Friends of Jamaica.

The 2026 hurricane season begins on June 1^st.

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