(NEXSTAR) — Hurricane Melissa has become one of the strongest Atlantic storms on record, reaching the rare strength of Category 5 on Monday. The “extremely dangerous” storm has its sights set on Jamaica as of Tuesday, the National Hurricane Center (NHC) reported.
As of 1 p.m. ET Tuesday, the NHC confirmed that Melissa made landfall in New Hope, Jamaica, with winds reaching 185 mph. The storm is moving at about 9 mph toward the north-northeast. Its slow speed is expected to keep it over Jamaica throughout the day before Melissa moves toward southeastern Cuba by Wednesday morning.
“Can’t remember a storm moving this slowly for this long,” said Rebecca Barry, a meteorologist at Nexstar’s WFLA, during a Tuesday broadcast of “Tracking the Tropics.” According to Barry, the winds are so strong that they are comparable to a tornado, “but it’s lasting for over a day because it’s moving so slowly.”
Jamaican Prime Minister Andrew Holness highlighted the severity of the storm, stating, “There is no infrastructure in the region that can withstand a Category 5. The question now is the speed of recovery. That’s the challenge.”
Massive wind damage is expected in Melissa’s core, with Jamaica’s highest mountains possibly experiencing gusts up to 200 mph. Michael Brennan, director of the U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami, warned, “It’s going to be a very dangerous scenario” with “total building failures” likely.
Melissa ranks as the fifth most intense Atlantic basin hurricane on record by pressure and is the strongest to make landfall since Hurricane Dorian in 2019, according to hurricane specialist and storm surge expert Michael Lowry.
Given the proximity of Jamaica and Cuba to the United States—Havana, Cuba, is just over 100 miles from Key West, Florida—concerns about whether Melissa could impact the U.S. are natural. Fortunately, current forecasts suggest otherwise.
The latest experimental cone from the NHC indicates Melissa is expected to move through Jamaica, Cuba, and the Bahamas before traveling northward through the Atlantic without reaching the East Coast.
Wes Hohenstein, chief meteorologist for Nexstar’s WNCN, explained that the poor weather conditions along the East Coast are actually helping steer Melissa away. “A lot of us are complaining on the East Coast today because we’ve got horrible weather, but it’s that horrible weather, jet stream dip that’s keeping the system away from the United States,” he said during “Tracking the Tropics.”
So far this Atlantic hurricane season, only one storm, Tropical Storm Chantal, has reached the U.S. Chantal caused severe weather in South Carolina, North Carolina, and Virginia after making landfall in early July, also impacting other areas in the Northeast.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
https://wgntv.com/weather/weather-blog/hurricane-melissa-makes-landfall-as-category-5-storm-will-it-impact-the-us/