Hurricane Melissa turning northward, remains on track to make landfall in eastern Westmorland early Tuesday

Principal Director of the Meteorological Service of Jamaica Evan Thompson says Hurricane Melissa has begun turning northward and remains on its projected track to make landfall in eastern Westmorland early Tuesday.

Thompson gave the update a short while ago at a press briefing at the Office of Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Management’s (ODPEM) operation centre.

He said the centre of Melissa continues to make its way toward Jamaica’s coastline and is expected to make direct impact tomorrow morning as a major storm.

“What we have facing us is a major category 5 hurricane that is over the waters of the Caribbean Sea and moving closer and closer to the mainland of Jamaica. It is some distance over 100 miles to the south of the island at this time, and it is expected, or it has already begun a slight turn toward the northwest,” he said.

Thompson said Melissa’s movement over the past few days has been westward, moving from southeast of the island to now just south and then southwest of the island.

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He said the system is now moving to the northwest, which suggests that it will be moving away.

“It suggests that, but be not fooled, because the projection was that it would turn first to the northwest and then take a turn toward the north, and then a turn toward the northeast. So it's making a turn to the coastline line toward the western part of Jamaica. It is what was projected,” he said.

He said some recurving is expected to take place toward the northeast, moving across the island.

It is expected that the system will make its exit in the vicinity of Trelawny and St Ann.

Thompson said currently, tropical storm conditions are being felt in the southern parts of the island.

“As we experience more of the tropical storm force winds that surround it, moving toward the north, we are going to experience more of that over the next day or two. By tomorrow morning, that's when we expect the centre [of the hurricane] to be making its way to the east, to the coastline. So this is our forecast track, the centre of the system as a major hurricane, will continue to move toward the coastline and then tomorrow morning, we expect that it will be making landfall,” said Thompson.

- Kimone Francis