Hurricane Melissa has formed in the Caribbean, making it the 13th named storm in the Atlantic this year, the Miami-based National Hurricane Center said. Monday morning, it became a powerful Category 5 hurricane.

Hurricane Melissa is barrelling through the Caribbean and heading straight for Jamaica, expected to hit as a rare Category 5 storm.

"This is going to be the strongest hurricane that's ever hit, at least in the records we have," Dr Fred Thomas, a research software engineer at Oxford University's Environmental Change Institute, tol...