The Cuban Civil Defense issued an early warning notice for the storm this Wednesday.
MIAMI, United States. – Tropical Storm Melissa continues to move slowly in the central Caribbean with prospects of intensification and with a hurricane watch in effect for Jamaica and the southwestern peninsula of Haiti, while the Cuban Civil Defense issued an “early warning” for the central and eastern regions of the Island and warned that the system “represents a potential danger for our geographic area.”
In your part of 11:00 am this Thursdaythe United States National Hurricane Center (NHC) located the center of Melissa at 15.4°N and 74.9°W, approximately 355 kilometers southeast of Kingston (Jamaica) and 450 km southwest of Port-au-Prince (Haiti), with maximum sustained winds of 75 km/h and minimum pressure of 1,003 hPa. According to that scientific entity, the storm is moving very slowly towards the north-northwest at 4 km/h.
The NHC also predicted that “Melissa will become a hurricane in a couple of days and a major hurricane by the end of the weekend.” It also warned that “significant flash flooding and numerous life-threatening landslides are expected.”
In terms of warnings, the NHC maintains a “hurricane watch” for Jamaica and the southwestern peninsula of Haiti (from the border with the Dominican Republic to Port-au-Prince), and a “tropical storm warning” for Jamaica. The agency forecasts rainfall of 150 to 300 mm in the south of the Dominican Republic, south of Haiti and eastern Jamaica until Sunday – with locally higher accumulations -, and 50 to 100 mm in the north of the Dominican Republic, northern Haiti and western Jamaica, with the potential for flash and urban flooding and an increasing risk in western Jamaica next week.
For its part, at 06:00 am today, the Forecast Center of the Cuban Institute of Meteorology (INSMET) Indian that in the next 24 hours the system will maintain “a similar translational speed, gradually inclining its trajectory to the northwest and then to the north,” and that “the oceanic and atmospheric conditions will be favorable for its gradual intensification.”
The institution added that it “maintains close monitoring of the evolution and future trajectory of this system.”
As for the near-term track, the NHC anticipates a slow northward motion over the next day or two, followed by a westward turn over the weekend, with Melissa moving closer to Jamaica and southwest of Haiti over the next two days. The INSMET, in its morning part, predicted that the system will remain with little movement for the next few days over the central Caribbean, south of the Greater Antilles, with gradual intensification.
The Civil Defense of Cuba issued this Wednesday an early warning notice for the storm, urging the authorities of the eastern and central regions to increase monitoring and communication with the population, and stressed that Melissa “represents a potential danger for our geographic area.”
