Melissa evolved from a tropical storm this Saturday to a category four hurricane in a period of less than 24 hours.
LIMA, Peru – The Institute of Meteorology in Cuba issued this morning tropical cyclone warning number 12, reporting that Hurricane Melissa reached category four on the Saffir-Simpson scale, out of a maximum of five.
“During the last 12 hours it has continued to gain in intensity and experienced a process of rapid intensification, reaching maximum sustained winds of 220 kilometers per hour, with higher gusts and its central pressure dropped to 944 hectoPascal,” the statement said.
At six in the morning on October 26, the central region of Hurricane Melissa was estimated at 16.3 degrees North latitude and 76.4 degrees West longitude, a position that places it about 180 kilometers south-southeast of Kingston, Jamaica and 415 kilometers south of the city of Santiago de Cuba.
Melissa evolved from a tropical storm to a category four hurricane in a period of less than 24 hours and is currently moving on a course close to the west at a speed of seven kilometers per hour.
Looking ahead to the next few hours, the hurricane will move slowly in the vicinity of Jamaica. The forecast indicates that it will continue westward and then gradually turn north and northeast in the coming days to transit very close to or over Jamaica, approaching Cuba on Tuesday through the seas south of the eastern region of the country.
The INSMET Forecast Center monitors the development of this highly intense hurricane. The outer bands of this system will gradually increase cloudiness and precipitation in the eastern region of Cuba. Starting today, strong swells will begin in the seas south of the provinces of Granma, Santiago de Cuba and Guantánamo,” the warning warns.
On the occasion of the imminent passage of Melissa, the National General Staff of the Civil Defense on the Island established this Saturday the Alert phase from 3:00 p.m. for the provinces of Guantánamo, Santiago de Cuba, Granma, Holguín, Las Tunas and Camagüey and the Information Phase for the provinces of Ciego de Ávila and Sancti Spíritus.
For his part, Jamie Rhome, assistant director from the National Hurricane Center in the US, warned that Melissa’s slow mobility “unfortunately” will continue for another three or four days, and predicted that the hurricane would be reaching Cuba next Wednesday.
“But really the biggest thing to talk about here is the extremely heavy rains and catastrophic flooding that will come with the storm because it is moving so slowly. This slow movement is going to really cause a problem,” the expert warned prior to Melissa’s passage through Jamaica.
