Thank you. My daughter said it’s very blustery and heavy rain, though in the form of showers rather than concerted downpours and high force winds. Seems like Jamaica and Cuba getting the brunt of it. Hope people there can withstand it.
Well, I’ve learned something new, thank you. It must work then.
I agree about the flooding from run-off, the forecast rain is off the scale.
1 Like
Melissa’s now a Cat 4 Hurricane after some explosive cyclogenesis overnight. Slight trend to the West now, so the worst of the winds should miss the more populated area around Kingston, however, still a while to go before it turns north an its path is nailed on.
Heavy rain will still be a big issue for the whole island no matter where the centre track goes.
Concern rising the potential damage could be just as bad as Hurricane Gilbert or Ivan.
Scary stuff. I lived through Hurricane Dean and Mum said those were more damaging.
Another slight correction west hopefully taking the core away from Kingston.
Another issue with the strongest hurricanes are tornadoes within the rain bands, perhaps emphasizing how a couple of miles can be the difference between a catastrophic event and just very strong winds.
It’s looking like a monster but development may have stalled a little due to wind sheer.
Cheers, Wiv. Just got word from my daughter. Heavy overcast and raining, sounds quite Essex - but it’s warmer.
1 Like
It gives me no pleasure to report that Hurricane Melissa is now one of the strongest storms to make landfall in a very long time. 175mph maximum gusts and air pressure is down to 906mb.
The only slightly good news is that the core is missing the most heavily populated parts of the island so Kingston and Montague Bay should only have tropical storm to Cat 1 winds. The worst of the rain will be in the south and East of the island though and that’s a big threat.
The central southern coastal area will have unimaginably awful conditions though. I hope there has been an evacuation order in place.
Government has been ordering evacuations to shelters for the past couple of days, especially in flood-prone areas.
1 Like
Good, I assumed that would be the case. It doesn’t ease the pain of losing a home but life is more important than bricks and mortar.
Time to hunker down soon? The streets look empty on the webcams.
Current situation is that Hurricane Melissa is on approach to the southern coast of Jamaica and as it stands will be the 2nd strongest recorded Hurricane to make landfall in history.
9:00 AM EDT Tue Oct 28
Location: 17.6°N 78.1°W
Moving: NNE at 7 mph
Min pressure: 896 mb
Max sustained: 180 mph
What’s the outlook for Jamaica right now then? Must be really bad
3 deaths so far but that number is going to multiply exponentially over the next 24 hours. Apparently, parts of the island are going to be completely left in ruin.
Just hoping that the storm doesn’t hit too many built up areas. Kingston is expected to be largely unscathed.
1 Like
Destruction, no reason to sugar coat it. It is not common to get a direct hit from a hurricane. Even more rarer something this powerful.
Hurricane Gilbert left nothing in it’s wake and this’ll be up there.
The core is about 50 miles south of the coast and set to make landfall to the west of Alligator Pond.
The planes are going back in to get updated data as it’s expected to have intensified, it will be Cat 5 on the coast then weaken slightly as it heads NE across the island, it’ll then intensify again once out to sea on its way to Cuba.
At this point the category is just a label, this is the worst hurricane to hit Jamaica in recorded history. It’s going to devastate communities and sadly I feel fatalities could be in the hundreds due to the multiple dangers this storm brings.
This looks like hell on earth.
I’ve been in Hurricane Dean. Footage don’t do justice the actual experience of it.
This looks like being catastrophic. How able is Jamaica to deal with something like this? With the due caveat that nobody is able to just deal with it.
Jamaica has been improving when it comes to dealing natural disasters, but this is unprecedented. Pretty much impossible. The last Hurricane this bad was 37 years ago.
Hurricane Dean as a point of reference, there wasn’t electricity and water for about 2 weeks. However the flooding wasn’t that bad since it only lasted overnight. The flooding will definitely be a nightmare this time and a bigger problem than the wind itself.
I’d expect the recovery effort to take couple months depending on the region. There’s going to be a lot of clean-up. Fortunately Jamaicans are resilient are built for the task but it’s not an enviable one.
A sense of helplessness about this whole thing. Hope is all that is left.
On a personal note, we’re just so thankful our daughter is out at the easternmost point of the DR, so getting small rainfall (1 to 2”) and some blustery wind.
3 Likes
I’m being cautious because there’s been some wankers making AI videos of severe conditions for clicks n cash. But I’ve seen some videos of flooding around Santa Cruz, Mandeville and Manchester that are jaw-dropping