KINGSTON, Jamaica — There will never be another Hurricane Melissa as the World Meteorological Organization’s Hurricane Committee has retired ‘Melissa’ from its rotating list of names used each hurricane season.

It is practice for the names of deadly hurricanes to be retired from the list, the WMO noted in a press release on Wednesday, citing the death and destruction the hurricane caused in the Caribbean in October 2025.

The storm, now tied with Hurricane Allan as the strongest hurricane in the Atlantic basin, and with Hurricane Dorian and the 1935 Labour Day hurricane as the strongest landfalling Atlantic hurricane, was Jamaica’s strongest landfalling storm.

As it crossed the Caribbean in late October, the storm produced storm surge and winds across Jamaica and Cuba, causing catastrophic damage.

It also brought extreme rainfall and flooding to the Dominican Republic, Haiti, Jamaica, and Cuba. Ninety people lost their lives in the storm.

President of WMO’s Regional Association IV and Principal Director at Jamaica’s Meteorological Service, Dr Evan Thompson, told the WMO, “After more than four months since the passage of Melissa over Jamaica, stories about the impacts and recovery continue to dominate the news and media.”

“Melissa has now been engraved in the collective memory of the nation,” said Thompson.

Noting that it only takes one landfalling tropical cyclone to roll back years of development, as with Hurricane Melissa, WMO Secretary-General Celeste Saulo said: “Recovery will be long and hard. Despite the force of Melissa, loss of life was in the dozens rather than the thousands. This is testimony to the accuracy of advance forecasts and the use of these early warnings to support early action.”

She urged hurricane committee members to be proud of themselves for saving so many lives and helping to protect key sectors of the economy.

The name Melissa has been replaced with Molly.