MIAMI, Florida, USA—This Friday, the National Hurricane Center (NHC), based in Miami, Florida, United States, released its afternoon report on the Tormenta Tropical Melissawhich is located on the Caribbean Sea.
The meteorological center indicates that Storm Melissa is reorganizing and preparing to intensify substantially over the next few dayss.
Also warns about floods and landslides that threaten life, at the same time, warns of possible catastrophic events due to rains in part of the island of Hispaniola and Jamaica, during the weekend.
Storm Melissa Report
The NHC notes in its report that, at 2:00 pm EDT (12:00 pm Central Mexico Time), the center of Tropical Storm Melissa was located by reconnaissance data from the Air Force Reserve near latitude 15.6 North, longitude 74.4 West.
Melissa is drifting east-southeast at about 4 km/h. It is expected to turn northeast and north with a slow and continuous motion, beginning this afternoon and evening.
This “slow movement” of Melissa, which contrasts with the higher speeds of movement of other cyclones, causes a “risk of a prolonged period of several days of potentially damaging winds” and “heavy rains,” observed the US agency.
A westward turn is forecast tomorrow, Saturday, and this general motion is expected to continue through Monday. A turn to the north and northeast is also expected on Tuesday and Wednesday.
On the forecast track, the center of Melissa is expected to move near or just south of Jamaica early next week and could be near eastern Cuba by the middle of next week.
Maximum sustained winds have increased and are near 95 km/h with stronger gusts. Additional strengthening is forecast today, followed by rapid intensification this weekend.
Melissa is forecast to become a hurricane on Saturday and a major hurricane next Sunday.
Tropical storm force winds extend outward up to 220 km from the center.
The minimum central pressure estimated by aircraft probe data is 997 mb (29.44 inches).
Melissa could impact Cuba and Jamaica as a hurricane
Melissa would impact Jamaica as a hurricane on Tuesday and Cuba on Wednesday, in addition to causing rain in Haiti, where it has already left three dead, and in the Dominican Republic, where 1 million users were left without water, the US National Hurricane Center (NHC) warned this Friday.
The agency indicated in its report that the future of the current tropical storm “still remains more uncertain than usual,” but warned that “in Cuba they must monitor the progress of Melissa, as the risk of heavy rains, damaging winds and storm surge appears to be increasing.”
He also considered that in Jamaica “preparations to protect life and property must be expedited” because strong winds and flooding would begin this weekend.
Likewise, he anticipated flash floods and landslides “that threaten life” in Haiti and the Dominican Republic, where authorities have already reported victims of the cyclone, which emerged on Tuesday as a tropical storm and this weekend could become a hurricane.
The phenomenon was in the last NHC report 345 kilometers southeast of Kingston, Jamaica, and 405 kilometers southwest of Port-au-Prince, Haiti.
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