What we’re covering
• Strongest storm this year: Melissa underwent extreme rapid intensification over the weekend and continues to strengthen. The rare Category 5 has winds of 175 mph, with stronger gusts, making it the strongest storm on the planet this year.
• Jamaica’s worst hurricane: Melissa’s outer bands are lashing Jamaica with wind and rain. Mandatory evacuation orders have been issued for vulnerable coastal areas of Jamaica ahead of the storm’s expected landfall Tuesday morning.
• Catastrophic impact: Up to 40 inches of rain, 13 feet of storm surge and 160 mph sustained winds will cause “extensive infrastructure damage” that will cut off communities, the National Hurricane Center warned. Melissa has already killed three people in Haiti and Jamaica each and one person in the Dominican Republic.AllCatch Up
Where is Melissa now?
Hurricane Melissa is a ferocious Category 5 storm spinning about 150 miles southwest of Kingston, Jamaica with sustained winds of 175 mph. It is one of the most intense hurricanes ever recorded in the Atlantic Ocean.
The satellite view shows a perfectly symmetrical buzz-saw structure — a textbook major hurricane with a clear, round eye and dense, spiraling bands wrapping tightly around its core.
Melissa’s slow crawl means Jamaica will be under its grip for many hours once the center nears land.
Category 5 Hurricane Melissa spins just south of Jamaica Monday night. CSU-CIRA/RAMMB/NOAA
Kingston’s streets are empty as Hurricane Melissa approaches Jamaica
From CNN’s Rhea Mogul and Jose Alvarez
Empty streets in Kingston as residents prepare for Hurricane Melissa Mateo Avalle Piber
The streets of Jamaica’s capital Kingston were empty Monday evening as its residents prepare for the wrath Hurricane Melissa is expected to bring to the island nation.
Video shared with CNN by an Argentinian tourist Monday showed very few cars traveling down quiet roads.
The streets appeared wet from the rainfall, with the sky overcast and cloudy.
The city, which has a population of just over 600,00, according to the World Population Review, is already starting to feel some strong winds and rain as the storm inches closer.
While the eye of the Category 5 hurricane remains offshore, it has already inflicted some damage to the island. At least three people died as they were preparing for the storm, Minister of Health and Wellness Christopher Tufton said Monday night.
Melissa’s earliest rain bands down trees, trigger landslides and take out power lines in Jamaica
While Category 5 Hurricane Melissa remains well offshore, its outer rain bands and gusty winds have begun to lash the island. Emergency responders in Jamaica have received reports of fallen trees, landslides and downed power lines.
“We’ve responded and removed impediments and… reopened all but one of the roads that have been blocked,” said Jamaican minister Robert Morgan in a news conference late Monday.
“We continue to urge people to exercise extreme caution… rock falls are an imminent threat,” he said.
Of more than 800 shelters across Jamaica, only 76 are in use, housing about 970 people, according to Minister Desmond McKenzie, who said the number is expected to rise as the storm approaches.
When will Hurricane Melissa make landfall in Jamaica?
There’s a lot of focus on when Melissa will officially make landfall in Jamaica, but that moment isn’t the most important part of this storm.
Right now, Melissa is still crawling northwest at 2 mph and the eye of the hurricane is likely to reach the southern coast of Jamaica sometime on Tuesday morning.
But the buzz-saw-like storm’s worst impacts will start hours earlier.
- Tropical-storm-force sustained winds (up to 73 mph) with higher gusts will spread across Jamaica after midnight
- Hurricane conditions will likely begin just before sunrise Tuesday. This means sustained winds of 74 mph up to 175 mph as the core approaches. Gusts could be over 200 mph, particularly in the mountains.
Because Melissa is moving so slowly, its damaging winds, flooding rain, and storm surge will last far longer than just the moment of landfall.
In other words: the clock doesn’t start when the eye crosses the coast — the storm is already arriving.
Climate change is likely worsening Hurricane Melissa
Hurricane Melissa’s intensification into the strongest storm on Earth so far this year, and one of the strongest storms on record in the Atlantic Ocean, was fueled by unusually hot ocean temperatures in the Caribbean.
The storm underwent two periods of rapid intensification, with its maximum sustained winds first jumping from 70 mph on Saturday morning to 140 mph just 24 hours later.
Then from Sunday afternoon through Monday afternoon its peak winds spiked again, going from 140 mph to 175 mph.
Such bouts of rapid intensification are becoming more frequent as the climate warms. Hurricane Melissa is only the latest in a string of intense Atlantic hurricanes this year to undergo such extreme rapid strengthening.
According to the climate science research group Climate Central, the ocean temperatures in the vicinity of Hurricane Melissa’s path were about 2.5 degrees Fahrenheit above average for this time of the year.
The group calculated that along the entire path of the storm so far, the unusually hot sea surface temperatures were at least 500 to 800 times more likely due to global warming.
Studies also show that climate change is causing hurricanes to produce heavier rainfall than they would have in past decades because warmer air holds more moisture.
Hurricane response will take “far more resources than Jamaica has to recover,” says prime minister
If Hurricane Melissa does make landfall as a Category 5 hurricane, recovery efforts will take “far more resources than Jamaica has to recover,” Prime Minister Andrew Holness told CNN’s Anderson Cooper Monday evening.
Holness said the island nation has prepared a “multi-layered response,” and within two weeks of the storm’s landfall, they should be able to mount a humanitarian response and meet residents’ immediate needs.
“But the long-term recovery and the medium-term recovery would require support,” he said.
The prime minister said he anticipates “major damage to our road infrastructure, bridges, drains, and possibly some damage to ports and airports.”
The country has a recovery plan for infrastructure that they hope to initiate quickly, he said.
There are 850 shelters across the island, enough to accommodate over 20,000 people, Holness said.
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