Hurrican eMelissa

[jack.h...@gmail.com]

That's a serious as I have seen since Katrina.

Jack

[Ashley haworth-roberts]

It has reached Category five intensity but is crawling forward at only around 3 mph. A recipe for catastrophic flooding.

[Ashley haworth-roberts]

Dangerous doesn't do it justice (assuming it does hit Jamaica):

Live updates: Hurricane Melissa threatens catastrophe in Jamaica as a Category 5 storm | CNN

[Graham Easterling]

It's certainly living up to the worst expectations. Very sad for the people there.

Graham

Penzance

[Ashley haworth-roberts]

Yes, though it sounds as though Kingston might escape the worst of it.

I'm about to view the Met Office deep dive broadcast about the likely track of Melissa/ex Melissa. It seems Brits may be talking about it for some time. 

[Ashley haworth-roberts]

(21) Met Office on X: "Hurricane Melissa will soon make landfall in Jamaica With a central pressure of 892 mb, the Category 5 storm is provisionally the joint third most intense Atlantic hurricane on record Catastrophic sustained winds of 185 mph & intense rainfall bring a life-threatening situation https://t.co/954XO0RJF3" / X

In the Atlantic only hurricanes Gilbert and Wilma were more intense. In terms of peak sustained wind speed, and assuming Melissa has peaked, only Allen had stronger winds. BBC News has a detailed article (not written by meteorologists but I expected they were consulted) on why this storm is so dangerous.

[Ashley haworth-roberts]

BBC News just suggested (around 7.45 pm) that the eye has now reached the north coast. If correct that would seem to suggest that the hurricane is moving a bit faster.

[Ashley haworth-roberts]

From the BBC News live page:

The centre of the storm has moved to the north coast near the tourist resort town of Montego Bay, and the sustained wind speed has dropped to 160 mph (260km/h), down from 185 mph when it made landfall.