| Category 2 hurricane (SSHWS/NWS) | |
 Hurricane Melissa nearing landfall on October 4. | |
| Formed | September 28, 2019 |
|---|---|
| Dissipated | October 12, 2019 |
| (Extratropical after October 9) | |
| Highest winds | 1-minute sustained: 100 mph (155 km/h) |
| Lowest pressure | 985 mbar (hPa); 29.09 inHg |
| Fatalities | 81 direct (+6 indirect) |
| Damage | $25 billion (2019 USD) |
| Part of the 2019 Atlantic hurricane season | |
Hurricane Melissa was a moderately strong Category 2 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.
It is one of the costliest tropical cyclones ever to strike the United States, as well as the second wettest tropical cyclone ever to strike the contiguous United States*. It produced 49.38 inches of rain at Fort Wayne, 44.11 inches of rain at Indianapolis, 39.87 inches of rain at Muncie, and 38.11 inches of rain at Marion.
The city of Gary saw only 2.37 inches of rain, while nearby Michigan City saw 21.36 inches of rain. South Bend recorded the second highest rainfall total at 48.11 inches of rain falling, however a disputed measurement of 61.37 inches occurred at Alexandria, in rural Madison County, Indiana. The storm was operationally a 80 mph Category 1 hurricane, being upgraded to a 85 mph Category 1 hurricane in the first Tropical Cyclone Report in March 2020, and to a 100 mph Category 2 hurricane in the special second TCR in October 2020.
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.
_(Blackford,_remastered).png){kind=link}
Map plotting the track and the intensity of the storm, according to the Saffir–Simpson scale
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 5:25 PM 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 4.13 feet (49.3 inches) of rain in some areas.
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. Just a few miles to the west of Shamrock Lakes, the Mississinewa River overflowed it's banks at Matthews in Grant County, resulting in a large part of Matthews as well as surrounding fields being flooded. Later estimates shown that 85% of the buildings in Matthews were damaged beyond repair, and Matthews' population dropped from 596 to 131 as a result of Melissa in the following few months.
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.
Records[]
The storm is the second wettest tropical storm on record to strike the contiguous United States, just over a inch ahead of Tropical Storm Amelia of 1978, but roughly 11 inches behind Hurricane Harvey of 2017.
It produced 49.38 inches of rain at Fort Wayne International Airport, in Fort Wayne, with it being contested as the wettest tropical storm on record to strike the USA, with a PWS in Alexandria, Indiana recording 61.37 inches of rain, or roughly 0.8 inches ahead of Hurricane Harvey.
The storm also was the costliest natural disaster ever to impact the state of Indiana, producing $11 billion in damages in just the state of Indiana alone.
A collection was brought together by the National Weather Service offices covering the state of Indiana in Spring 2020 showing documented rainfall totals, and this table is shown below.
Shows the total is disputed.
| City | Rainfall total | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Alexandria, Indiana | 61.37 in (1,558.79 mm) | If this recording is true, this would make Melissa one of the wettest tropical cyclones globablly, and the wettest to impact the United States.
However, the recording is disputed. |
| Fort Wayne, Indiana | 49.38 in (1,254.25 mm) | Occurred at Fort Wayne International Airport. The worst flash flooding of Melissa occurred around the Fort Wayne area. |
| South Bend, Indiana | 48.11 in (1,221.99 mm) | South Bend was heavily devastated by Melissa's passage, with South Bend International Airport recording 48.11 inches of rain. |
| Columbia City, Indiana | 48.06 in (1,220.72 mm) | A personal weather station in Columbia City recorded 48.06 inches of rain over October 8, with the station being knocked offline around 3 pm, more than 16 hours before the end of rain in the area, possible totals as high as 70 inches of rain if this recording is accurate. |
| North Webster, Indiana | 46.55 in (1,182.37 mm) | Recorded at the National Weather Service in Northern Indiana's office before it was evacuated due to flooding. |
| Warsaw, Indiana | 46.51 in (1,181.35 mm) | Recorded at Warsaw Fire Department Post 2. |
| Indianapolis, Indiana | 44.11 in (1,120.39 mm) | Recorded at the National Weather Service in Indianapolis. Catastrophic flooding occurred in downtown, with possible totals of 50+ inches of rain. |
| Speedway, Indiana | 44.11 in (1,120.39 mm) | A personal weather station recorded 44.11 inches of rain at Speedway. However, the station had not been properly functioning over the last few weeks according to the owner, therefore this recording is disputed. |
| Muncie, Indiana | 39.87 in (1,012.69 mm) | Recorded at Muncie Municipal Airport. |
| Anderson, Indiana | 39.86 in (1,012.44 mm) | Anderson Municipal Airport recorded 39.86 inches of rain, with a PWS recording 51.77 inches towards northern Anderson, the PWS recorded is disputed however. |
| Shamrock Lakes, Indiana | 38.81 in (985.77 mm) | A personal weather station in Shamrock Lakes recorded 38.81 inches of rain with Melissa, more than the entire year of 2019 up to that point (it had recorded 29.86 inches that whole year prior to Melissa).
However, due to various factors, this recording is disputed. |
| Marion, Indiana | 38.11 in (967.99 mm) | Recorded at a PWS in Marion, however, this recording is not disputed due to the fact that they used several PWS' to verify a 38.11 inch rainfall total. |
| Kokomo, Indiana | 37.68 in (957.07 mm) | Recorded at a SKYWARN spotter's house in Kokomo. |
| Tipton, Indiana | 31.41 in (797.81 mm) | Recorded by Tipton Fire Department. A PWS recorded 60.11 inches of rain, however that is disputed. |
| Lafayette, Indiana | 28.22 in (716.78 mm) | Recorded by the Lafayette Police Department. PWS recorded 31.62 inches of rain, however that is disputed. |
| Bloomington, Indiana | 26.72 in (678.68 mm) | Recorded on Indiana University South campus. |
| Terre Haute, Indiana | 26.72 in (678.68 mm) | Recorded by the Terre Haute Police Department, same amount as seen in Bloomington. |
| Morocco, Indiana | 24.01 in (609.85 mm) | Recorded by the Indiana National Guard while on standby. |
| Michigan City, Indiana | 21.36 in (542.54 mm) | Recorded at Michigan City Municipal Airport. |
| Rushville, Indiana | 17.61 in (447.29 mm) | Recorded by Rushville Police Department. |
| Madison, Indiana | 15.43 in (391.92 mm) | Recorded by Kentucky National Guard on standby in Madison. Catastrophic flooding along the Ohio River occurred. |
| Evansville, Indiana | 10.07 in (255.77 mm) | Recorded by Evansville Police Department, rating from just west of the Illinois state line by the Illinois National Guard shows 13.68 inches of rain. |
| North Judson, Indiana | 6.61 in (167.89 mm) | Recorded by the Starke County Sheriffs Office. |
| Gary, Indiana | 2.37 in (60.19 mm) | Recorded at Gary/Chicago International Airport. Lowest rainfall total recorded by Melissa that was reported. |
| Precipitation | Storm | Location | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rank | mm | in | ||
| 1 | 1254.2 | 49.38 | Melissa 2019 | Fort Wayne Intl Airport |
| 2 | 335.7 | 13.22 | Leslie 2024 | Delaware County Regional Airport |
| 3 | 236.2 | 9.30 | Ike 2008 | South Bend 2.7 ESE |
| 4 | 225.3 | 8.87 | Audrey 1957 | Rockville |
| 5 | 224.8 | 8.85 | Edouard 2020 | Virgil I. Grissom Municipal Airport |
| 6 | 209.8 | 8.26 | Tico 1983 | Seymour 2 N |
| 7 | 174.2 | 6.86 | Isidore 2002 | Lexington 3 N |
| 8 | 170.7 | 6.72 | Bill 2015 | Grissom AFB |
| 9 | 169.4 | 6.67 | Five 2021 | Hartford City 2 N |
| 10 | 162.6 | 6.40 | Cindy 2017 | Albany |
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 Melania for use in the 2025 season, and will never be used again for any future Atlantic hurricanes.
(* Disputed as the wettest tropical storm to ever strike the contiguous United States, as a Personal Weather Station in Alexandria, Indiana recorded 61.37 inches of rain, or roughly .8 inches ahead of Hurricane Harvey of 2017)