Finally, sea-levels are rising, mainly due to a combination of melting glaciers and ice sheets, and the fact that warmer water takes up more space. Local factors can also play a part. This means storm surges happen on top of already elevated sea levels, worsening coastal flooding.

Hurricane Maria in 2017 leads the list of hurricanes that had the highest wind speeds when making landfall, according to the National Hurricane Center.

Hours from landfall, Hurricane Melissa is also slow moving like Hurricane Harvey in 2017, which could mean catastrophic flooding.

Hurricane Melissa followed what has unfortunately become a pattern for major storms: It formed late in the season, intensified rapidly, then stalled near the coast.

Only 81 hurricanes have struck as Category 4 or higher since 1851, or about one every other year on average. A couple have crippled multiple points at that strength. Irma, in 2017, managed to hit five countries as a Category 4 or 5 — the most of any storm in the Atlantic.

Melissa is now a Category 1 moving through the Bahamas after the storm made a historic landfall in Jamaica as one of the strongest Atlantic hurricanes in history.