Melissa Becomes a Hurricane, Expected to Start Rapid Intensification

What was Tropical Storm Melissa was upgraded to a hurricane Saturday afternoon.  It appears to have begun a process of rapid intensification and is expected to become a major hurricane on Sunday.

At 5 pm Saturday, Hurricane Melissa was located about 130 miles southeast of Kingston, Jamaica and 250 miles west-southwest of Port-au-Prince, Haiti.  Maximum sustained winds were 90 miles per hour and was moving west at 3 miles per hour.

There’s now a hurricane watch for eastern Cuba, including the provinces of Granma, Santiago de Cuba, Guantanamo, and Holguin.  There’s a hurricane warning for Jamaica and a hurricane watch and tropical storm warning for southern Haiti from the border with the Dominican Republic to Port-au-Prince.

Melissa is forecast to bring up to 30 inches of rain to Jamaica and portions of Hispaniola, and there are fears that the region will see deadly mudslides as well as the damaging winds of a major hurricane.

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