Hurricane Melissa tied Hurricane Allen as the strongest North Atlantic hurricane by wind speed. Melissa’s wind speed peaked at 190 miles (about 306 km) per hour leading up to its landfall on Jamaica, matching a record set by Hurricane Allen in 1980. Minimum central pressure is another measure of storm intensity, with lower pressures generally corresponding to higher storm intensity. Hurricane Melissa’s lowest central pressure was 892 millibars, which placed the storm among the most intense storms in the North Atlantic basin’s history. Only Hurricane Gilbert in 1988 and Hurricane Wilma in 2005 had lower central pressure measurements.
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