Hurricane Melissa intensified to Category 5 on the Saffir-Simpson Scale early on Monday.\u00a0 At 8:00 a.m. EDT on Monday the center of Hurricane Melissa was located at latitude 16.4\u00b0N and longitude 78.0\u00b0W which put the center about 135 miles (220 km) southwest of Kingston, Jamaica.\u00a0 Melissa was moving toward the west at 3 m.p.h. (5 km\/h).\u00a0 The maximum sustained wind speed was 160 m.p.h. (260 km\/h) and there were wind gusts to 190 m.p.h. (305 km\/h).\u00a0 The minimum surface pressure was 913 mb.<\/p>\n
A Hurricane Warning is in effect for Jamaica.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n Hurricane Warnings are in effect for the Cuban provinces of Granma, Santiago de Cuba, Guantanamo, and Holguin.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n Hurricane Watches are in effect for the Central Bahamas, the Southeastern Bahamas, and the Turks and Caicos.<\/span><\/p>\n A Tropical Storm Warning is in effect for Haiti.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n A Tropical Storm Warning is in effect for the Cuban province of Las Tunas.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n Hurricane Melissa intensified to Category 5 on the Saffir-Simpson Scale early on Monday.\u00a0 A circular eye with a diameter of 12 miles (19 km) was at the center of Melissa\u2019s circulation.\u00a0 The eye was surrounded by a ring of thunderstorms and the strongest winds were occurring in that ring of storms.\u00a0 Bands of showers and thunderstorms were revolving around the center of Hurricane Melissa.\u00a0 Storms near the center of Melissa generated strong upper level divergence that pumped large quantities of mass away from the hurricane.\u00a0 The removal of large amounts of mass caused the surface pressure to decrease rapidly.<\/p>\n Winds to hurricane force extended out 30 miles (50 km) from the center of Melissa\u2019s circulation.\u00a0 Winds to tropical storm force extended out 195 miles (315 km) in the eastern half of Hurricane Melissa.\u00a0 Winds to tropical storm force extended out 90 miles (145 km) in the western side of Melissa\u2019s circulation.<\/p>\n The Hurricane Intensity Index (HII) for Hurricane Melissa is 35.0.\u00a0 The Hurricane Size index (HSI) is 11.4 and the Hurricane Wind Intensity Size Index (HWISI) is 46.4.\u00a0 Hurricane Melissa is similar in size and intensity to Hurricane Andrew when Andrew made landfall in South Florida in 1992.<\/p>\n Hurricane Melissa will move through an environment favorable for a very powerful hurricane during the next 24 hours.\u00a0 Melissa will move over water where the Sea Surface Temperatures are near 30\u00b0C.\u00a0 It will move through a region where the upper level winds are weak and there will be little vertical wind shear.\u00a0 Hurricane Melissa could intensify during the next 24 hours unless an eyewall replacement cycle occur.\u00a0 If the inner end of a rainband wraps around the existing eye and eyewall, then concentric eyewalls could cause Melissa to weaken.<\/p>\n The high pressure system that has been steering Hurricane Melissa slowly toward the west is likely to weaken during the next 24 hours.\u00a0 When the high pressure system weakens, Melissa will start to move slowly toward the north.\u00a0 On its anticipated track, the core of Hurricane Melissa will hit Jamaica early on Tuesday.<\/p>\n Hurricane Melissa will drop very heavy rain on Jamaica, Haiti and parts of the Dominican Republic.\u00a0 Very heavy rain is likely to cause catastrophic floods in some locations.\u00a0 Hurricane Melissa will also produce very strong winds in Jamaica.\u00a0 Melissa will be capable of causing severe damage.\u00a0 Widespread electricity outages are likely.\u00a0 Melissa could produce a storm surge of up to 16 feet (5 meters) along the south coast of Jamaica.<\/p>\n Hurricane Melissa will also bring strong winds and locally heavy rain to eastern Cuba, the Central and Southeastern Bahamas, and the Turks and Caicos.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Hurricane Melissa intensified to Category 5 on the Saffir-Simpson Scale early on Monday.\u00a0 At 8:00 a.m. EDT on Monday the center of Hurricane Melissa was located at latitude 16.4\u00b0N and longitude 78.0\u00b0W which put the center about 135 miles (220 km) southwest of Kingston, Jamaica.\u00a0 Melissa was moving toward the west at 3 m.p.h. (5 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,2],"tags":[528,527,3787,145,27,2591,2167,26,2590,4010,650,448,2323,2589,1733,2592,2587,30],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23471"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=23471"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23471\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23472,"href":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23471\/revisions\/23472"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=23471"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=23471"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=23471"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}