There is no escape. The eastern region of Cuba will soon suffer the scourge of the powerful Hurricane Melissawhich at dawn this Sunday had already reached category 4 after experiencing rapid intensification southeast of Jamaica.
“Eastern Cuba must prepare for the direct impact within 48 to 72 hours of Hurricane Melissa, possibly as a category 3 or 4 hurricane of great intensity,” I warned earlier today the island’s Institute of Meteorology (Insmet).
In its part at 6:00 in the morning, the entity reported that in the last hours Melissa “experienced a process of rapid intensification” that led it to be a category 4 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson scale, less than 24 hours after become a hurricane.
At that time it was located 180 kilometers south-southeast of Kingston, Jamaica, and 415 kilometers south of the city of Santiago de Cuba, and was moving on a course close to the west at only 7 km/h.
Its maximum sustained winds were 220 km/h, with higher gusts, and its central pressure had dropped to 944 hectoPascal.
Two hours later, at 8:00 AM, Melissa maintained the same strength of its winds and translation speed, although its pressure had increased slightly to 952 hectoPascal, according to the National Hurricane Center of the United States (NHC).
According to it, the Hurricane-force winds from Melissa extend to about 35 km dThe center and tropical storms cover much more: 280 km.
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