Hurricane Melissa, now a powerful Category 5 storm, is bearing down on Jamaica and is forecast to be the worst storm in the island's history.

Satellite video show Hurricane Melissa intensifying in the Caribbean, with dramatic cloud formations and lightning flashes captured near the eye of the hurricane.

Melissa has already been blamed for at least four deaths in Haiti and the Dominican Republic, and is set to unleash torrential rains on parts of Jamaica in a direct hit on the island.