The center of a powerful Hurricane Melissa is beginning to move off the northern coast of Jamaica, but severe weather will linger into the evening and beyond. Melissa will now take aim at eastern Cuba, where landfall is expected early on Wednesday.
At 5 pm Tuesday, Melissa was located about 15 miles east of Montego Bay, Jamaica and 200 miles southwest of Guantanamo, Cuba. Maximum sustained winds were 145 miles per hour, as the hurricane weakened slightly as it interacted with the mountainous terrain of Jamaica. Melissa was moving north-northeast at 8 miles per hour, and its forward speed is expected to increase.
There is now a hurricane watch for Bermuda, which will see impacts from Melissa on Thursday evening into Friday. There are hurricane warnings for the central and southeastern Bahamas as well as eastern Cuba, now including a hurricane warning for Las Tunas province. There are tropical storm warnings for Haiti, the Turks and Caicos, and the Cuban province of Camaguey.
Hurricane Melissa, with maximum sustained winds of 185 miles at landfall near New Hope early Tuesday afternoon, is the most intense hurricane to hit Jamaica in recorded history. It will be days until we get a true picture of the scope of the damage that Melissa has caused.
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