Hotter oceans Experts point to climate crisis connections

The extraordinary intensification of Hurricane Melissa, set to be one of the strongest storms to ever hit Jamaica, is probably a symptom of the rapid heating of the world's oceans, scientists have said.

- Oliver Milman

Melissa was a tropical storm on Saturday, before exploding in strength to a category 4 hurricane early on Sunday. The storm's winds escalated from 70mph to 140mph in just a day, one of the fastest intensifications on record in the Atlantic Ocean.

On Monday morning, the US National Hurricane Center upgraded Melissa further to a category 5 storm, with winds of up to 160mph (260km/h). The hurricane made landfall in Jamaica yesterday, where it is feared it will cause catastrophic flooding and landslides before moving on to Cuba and the Bahamas.

Scientists say this is the fourth storm in the Atlantic this year to undergo rapid intensification of its wind speed and power. This sort of intensification has been linked to the human-caused climate crisis, which is making oceans hotter.