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As Jamaica braces for the impact of Hurricane Melissa, which is currently a powerful Category 5 storm, forecasters in Canada are keeping a close eye on any impact for the Atlantic provinces. Hurricane Melissa is the strongest storm of the 2025 Atlantic Hurricane season, Chief Global News Meteorologist Anthony Farnell said. “It reached Category 5 strength early Monday morning and continues to intensify,” he added. It is currently barrelling towards Jamaica, which sits directly in the hurricane’s path as it reaches its highest strength, and has already caused intense flooding and devastation in the Caribbean. Meteorologist Bob Robichaud with the Canadian Hurricane Centre says while Melissa isn’t tracking to make landfall on Canada’s east coast, some wet and windy weather is expected for the region at the end of the week. A separate low pressure system will be developing in the mid-Atlantic states and gradually heading toward the Maritime provinces. “It will generate some some rain and probably some gusty winds on Friday, at which point Melissa will be still well to the south,” he said. “What we’re going to be keeping an eye on is if there’s any interaction between both systems. Right now, it’s a little early still to really pin down any details, but most of the weather that we’re going to see later in the week is going to be tied to this non-tropical system that’s approaching from the U.S.” Robichaud says activity so far this hurricane season has been near average to slightly above average, but the Atlantic provinces have been lucky because none of the storms has come close to the region. “That’s a result of a persistent area of high pressure that kind of set up over eastern Canada over the course of the summer. But that also produced some drought conditions as well,” he said. “So the same kind of weather pattern that resulted in us not getting any kind of tropical activity this year also resulted in in very, very dry conditions and all the other impacts that go with that, like issues with fall forest fires and water availability.“ He adds that while hurricane season tends to peak in September, significant storms in late October and early November aren’t unheard of. Water temperature is still very warm in the tropics right now, he says, and there is the potential for “one of two more of these tropical systems” to develop before the season is over. “We have a few more weeks to go and we just need to keep our guard up right till the end of hurricane season,” he said. — with a file from Rachel Goodman
