By Marco Lopez
Hurricane Melissa grew from a tropical storm to a powerful Category 5 hurricane over the weekend. The country has been experiencing impacts from the outer bands since Sunday night. Hurricane Melissa continues its path toward Jamaica, moving slowly west at about 6 km/h (3 mph).
It is expected to make landfall on Tuesday and will move over the country through Tuesday. A Hurricane Warning is in effect. Additional strengthening is forecast as the storm makes landfall in southwestern Jamaica. Hurricane-force winds will extend outward up to 30 miles from the centre, and tropical storm-force winds are expected to extend outward 195 miles.
“Destructive winds, especially in the mountains, will begin by this evening,” the 5 AM Monday advisory from the National Hurricane Centre (NHC) warns.
“It is also likely that hurricane conditions could linger over Jamaica due to the slow-moving nature of the system. Given the extended days of rain leading up to landfall and the extended inundation from the actual passage, we can expect general flash flooding across the island,” Prime Minister Andrew Holness said in an address to the nation.
He cautions low-lying, coastal, and river communities to expect flooding from the extended rains or storm surge.
The NHC forecasts rainfall could reach up to 30 inches, with central and eastern parishes at high risk of flooding, and the hilly areas also expected to see heavy rainfall. The mountainous areas may see landslides.
“Buildings and activities in and along those waterways or hillsides will be at high risk of damage, complete displacement, or loss of life — hurricane winds will most certainly damage roofs and compromise some structures,” PM Holness said.
See full address below:
Officials, including the Prime Minister, have warned that Hurricane Melissa could be worse than previous major storms that impacted the island, like Wilma in 2005 and Beryl, most recently in 2023.
Hurricane Melissa has already claimed lives, with one person killed in the Dominican Republic and three reported dead in Haiti from a landslide and a falling tree.
Residents of Jamaica are urged to seek shelter and take all precautions to protect life and property from this deadly system.
Melissa is the fourth of this year’s tropical storms to undergo rapid intensification. Hurricane intensity is measured by its maximum sustained wind speed. When a storm increases by at least 35 miles per hour in a 24-hour period — or roughly two categories on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale — meteorologists call that rapid intensification.
At 11 AM Eastern Time on Saturday, Melissa was still a tropical storm with winds of 70 mph. By 5 AM on Sunday morning, it was a howling Category 4 hurricane with wind speeds of 140 mph.
A 2023 study in the journal Scientific Reports found that Atlantic hurricanes are now more likely to intensify rapidly — due to high ocean temperatures that fuel explosive growth. Oceans around the world, particularly in the Caribbean, have been warming and experiencing record heat because of human-caused climate change.
