Hurricane Melissa (Blackford) (2019)

Hurricane Melissa was a weak Category 1 hurricane which made landfall on the Gulf Coast on October 4, 2019 near Gulfport, Mississippi, while causing moderate damage in portions of the Gulf Coast, the storm would later stall over northeastern Indiana, bringing flash flooding comparable to that of the Great Flood of 1913 to south central Michigan, northwestern Ohio and northeastern Indiana.

Meteorological history
A tropical wave emerged off the coast of Africa on September 16, 2019, and the NHC began monitoring the area of disorganized thunderstorms near the Windward Islands on September 20, tracking the possibility of it becoming a tropical depression or tropical storm in the coming days, with some models showing it becoming a major hurricane.

The NHC issued their final update on the system early on September 23 as the storms were absorbed into a cold front, the storms reemerged on September 26 near the Yucatan Peninsula and rapidly became tropical in two days, the NHC issued their first advisory on Tropical Depression Eighteen on September 28, 2019 and later that evening named it Tropical Storm Melissa, Melissa remained a weak tropical storm in the Gulf of Mexico due to unfavorable conditions, before rapidly intensifying as it entered the central Gulf of Mexico. It became a hurricane on October 3, reaching peak intensity around 4PM that day.

Melissa made landfall early on October 4 as a 75 mph minimum Category 1 hurricane, causing minor storm surge leading to 4 drowning deaths in Louisiana. The storm began to rapidly weaken as it moved inland and by that evening it was a Tropical Depression, most models seemed to suggest that it would move back out to sea, however, the EURO model showed the storm eventually stalling in northeastern Indiana. By October 6, most models were in agreement that Melissa would stall in northeastern Indiana, and thus the National Weather Service offices in Indianapolis, Northern Indiana, Detroit and Wilmington (Ohio) issued Flash Flood Watches, with the one issued by Northern Indiana sounding extremely urgent at parts such as "The remnants of Melissa may bring major and deadly flash flooding to northeastern Indiana".

On October 7, the storm moved into northeastern Indiana, bringing plenty of heavy rain and severe thunderstorms with it, producing several tornadoes. Widespread flash flooding was in progress by that evening, cars were reportedly stranded on I-69 in Fort Wayne, while traffic all over Indianapolis was at a standstill. The first flooding death occurred in rural Randolph County, Indiana late that night, when a car was submerged in flood waters. Flash flood emergencies were declared across northeastern Indiana, with state governor Eric Holcomb declaring a state of emergency the following day. Due to his close ties with the Trump administration, he got Trump to declare the area a federal emergency area.

Rain started to come to a end early on October 9, after dumping as much as 20 inches of rain in some areas, the other 11 flood deaths would occur early that afternoon however when a overpass was so overfilled with water that it collapsed in downtown Fort Wayne, sending the overpass concrete onto emergency vehicles, no one was directly killed in the overpass collapse, however it did knock several emergency managers out, causing them to drown.

The system finally moved out of the area later that afternoon, however, pure devastation was reported in northeastern Indiana, with the worst affected areas being Fort Wayne (Allen County) and Montpelier (Blackford County), a odd case regarding flooding in Blackford County led to the town of Shamrock Lakes only receiving river ponding, despite the towns low elevation and it's situation with 6 lakes.

Donald Trump declared the flooding in Indiana, and the flooding of a lesser extent in Ohio and Michigan a "terrible disaster" and declared that extensive FEMA funding would go into the recovery of Indiana.

Retirement
Due to the extensive flooding caused by Melissa in northeastern Indiana, the United States government requested the name be retired. It was retired in Spring 2020 by the WMO, and was replaced by Mason for use in the 2025 season, and will never be used again for any future Atlantic hurricanes.