Hurricane Melissa's peak of 165 knots, about 190 mph, is now part of the official record. The National Hurricane Center's best-track database, HURDAT2, in the file dated 27 February 2026, gives Melissa the same peak wind as Hurricane Allen in 1980, and no Atlantic storm in the database since 1851 has a higher value. We used that file, and NHC's individual reports on the biggest storms, to build five charts about the 2025 hurricane season.
Three category 5 hurricanes in one Atlantic season
The strongest Atlantic storms of 2025 chart ranks all 13 named storms by peak wind. Melissa leads on 165 knots. Erin and Humberto both reached 140 knots, which puts all three above the 137-knot threshold for category 5 on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale. Gabrielle peaked at 120 knots, making four major hurricanes, and Imelda at 80 knots was the season's fifth and final hurricane. The other eight storms stayed below hurricane strength.
NHC's report on Melissa describes an estimated peak of 165 knots at 1200 UTC on 28 October, when the centre was about 40 nautical miles south-southwest of New Hope, Jamaica. It made landfall near New Hope as an estimated 160-knot category 5 hurricane around 1725 UTC that day. The report calls it the strongest hurricane on record to make landfall in Jamaica and says it is tied for the strongest Atlantic landfall by wind speed, alongside Dorian in 2019 and the Labor Day Hurricane of 1935.
A pressure 21 millibars below anything else that year
Lower central pressure means a more intense storm, and the lowest central pressure of Atlantic storms in 2025 chart shows how far Melissa stood apart. NHC's report says dropsonde data from an Air Force Reserve Hurricane Hunter aircraft showed the pressure had fallen to 892 mb. Erin's minimum was 913 mb and Humberto's 918. Only one other storm, Gabrielle at 944 mb, dropped below 950.
Erin lasted longest, Melissa came second
Strength and staying power are different things. The longest-lasting Atlantic storms of 2025 chart counts the days each storm spent at tropical storm strength or stronger, using HURDAT2's six-hourly records. Erin tops it with 11.5 days, and NHC's report describes it as a very large and long-lived Cabo Verde hurricane on a long parabolic track around the North Atlantic. Melissa is second with 10.25 days. Humberto matched Erin's 140-knot peak but lasted 7 days, and Barry, a June tropical storm, held tropical storm strength for only 18 hours.
The Pacific had more hurricanes but no category 5
The eastern and central Pacific tell a different story. The strongest eastern and central Pacific storms of 2025 chart covers 20 named storms, and 11 of them became hurricanes, more than twice the Atlantic's five. None reached category 5. Kiko was strongest at 125 knots, followed by Erick at 120 and the central Pacific's Iona at 115. NHC's report says Kiko later threatened the Hawaiian Islands but passed north of them with little impact, while Erick made landfall as a category 3 hurricane in the far west of the Mexican state of Oaxaca.
More Pacific hurricanes, but not more hurricane time per storm
The days at hurricane strength by storm chart puts both basins side by side. Erin spent the most time as a hurricane, 7.25 days, just ahead of Kiko on 7. The Atlantic's five hurricanes together spent 24.25 days at hurricane strength, while the Pacific's 11 hurricanes added up to 26.25, so the Pacific total is only slightly larger despite having more than twice as many hurricanes. Erick shows how short a strong storm's hurricane stage can be: it reached category 4 but was a hurricane for only 1.75 days.
| Storm (basin) | Peak wind (kt) | Min. pressure (mb) | Days as hurricane |
|---|---|---|---|
| Melissa (Atlantic) | 165 | 892 | 5.75 |
| Erin (Atlantic) | 140 | 913 | 7.25 |
| Humberto (Atlantic) | 140 | 918 | 5.25 |
| Kiko (Eastern Pacific) | 125 | 945 | 7 |
| Erick (Eastern Pacific) | 120 | 944 | 1.75 |
What the numbers leave out
Peak wind is an estimate rounded to the nearest 5 knots, and it describes one moment in a storm's life. It does not measure rainfall, storm surge or size, and NHC's guide to the Saffir-Simpson scale notes that hurricanes of all categories can produce deadly storm surge, rain-induced floods and tornadoes. The duration charts count in six-hour steps, so each total can be off by a few hours. Each chart page sets out its method and links to NHC's data.