Overview
- Late Wednesday, Melissa held 50 mph winds and inched west at about 2 mph roughly 335 miles south-southwest of Port-au-Prince and 295 miles south-southeast of Kingston, according to the National Hurricane Center.
- The storm is forecast to strengthen into a hurricane by Friday and could reach major hurricane intensity by late weekend, with very warm Caribbean waters supporting rapid intensification.
- A Hurricane Watch covers Haiti’s southwestern peninsula and a Tropical Storm Watch is in effect for Jamaica, where authorities prepared hundreds of shelters and closed schools and courts.
- The NHC expects 5 to 10 inches of rain across southern Haiti, the southern Dominican Republic and parts of Jamaica through Saturday, with locally higher totals and a high risk of flash flooding and landslides.
- Forecast guidance remains split, with scenarios ranging from a westward track near or south of Jamaica to a northeast turn toward Hispaniola or the Bahamas; U.S. watches are not in place, and most projections keep the system south of Florida for now.