(CNN) — The water around Jamaica had been simmering all summer. By the time Hurricane Melissa roared ashore Tuesday, that uber-warm Caribbean Sea had helped turn it into a monster: a Category 5 storm with winds reaching 185 miles an hour, tied for the strongest hurricane to strike land in the Atlantic.

Experts say it’s a visceral example of what climate change can do to the planet’s most fearsome storms — supercharging them with heat and moisture until they become almost unrecognizable from the Atlantic hurricanes of the past.

Jamaica is waking up to devastation , with severe damage to infrastructure including the electric grid, hospitals and schools. But the true extent of the damage in the hardest-hit communities may take days to uncover, as rescue workers and families struggle to

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