Tropical Storm Melissa is expected to strengthen into a life-threatening Category 5 hurricane that could swerve into the northeastern US in just days. The slow-moving storm has been stuck in the Caribbean all week, but meteorologists have said that the ...

Tropical Storm Melissa's forecast is filled with uncertainty, prompting some dire worst-case scenarios for Caribbean islands.

Jamaica's central location in the Caribbean, the island has never recorded a direct landfall from a Category 4 or 5 hurricane, according to records from the National Hurricane Center (NHC) dating back to 1850.

Jamaica and other parts of the Caribbean are staring down what could become a catastrophic, days-long assault of extreme rainfall and damaging winds with a strengthening Tropical Storm Melissa expected to become a major hurricane over some of the hottest ocean water on the planet.

Hurricane season annually keeps millions on their toes from August to November and while the climatological peak of hurricane season is beyond us at this point, residents living along the East and Gulf coasts of the U.

Hurricane Wilma tapped into the warm Caribbean waters, and paired with low wind shear in the atmosphere, and the storm underwent a record-setting and staggering period of intensification. The storm's central pressure bottomed out at 26.04 inches of mercury (882 mb), a record that still stands for Atlantic hurricanes 20 years later.

Hurricane Gabrielle intensified into a major Category 4 storm, the second major hurricane of the Atlantic hurricane season.