The Caribbean is bracing for Hurricane Melissa, one of the most powerful to ever strike the region. Melissa began as a cluster of thunderstorms off the coast of west Africa, which travelled west and developed into a depression, reaching tropical storm status to the north of Venezuela on 21 October. Rapid intensification over the weekend strengthened Melissa to category 4 as it slowly meandered west through the Caribbean Sea.
Melissa reached category 5 intensity on Monday morning with sustained winds of 160mph (257km/h). Melissa is forecast to take a turn to the north-east towards Jamaica on Monday afternoon, making landfall on Tuesday by about midday, maintaining it’s current strength, which would make it the strongest of only five hurricanes ever recorded to hit Jamaica directly.
