There’s a lot of focus on when Melissa will officially make landfall in Jamaica, but that moment isn’t the most important part of this storm.
Right now, Melissa is still crawling north-northwest at 2 mph and the eye of the hurricane is likely to reach the southern coast of Jamaica sometime late Tuesday morning.
But the storm’s buzz-saw-like impacts will start hours earlier.
- Tropical-storm-force sustained winds (up to 73 mph) with higher gusts are already spreading across Jamaica.
- Hurricane conditions will likely begin around sunrise Tuesday. This means sustained winds of 74 mph up to 175 mph as the core approaches. Gusts could be over 200 mph, particularly in the mountains.
Because Melissa is moving so slowly, its damaging winds, flooding rain and storm surge will last far longer than just the moment of landfall.
In other words: the clock doesn’t start when the eye crosses the coast — the storm is already arriving.
