Hurricane Melissa heads towards Jamaica

[gotoPzero]

Looking pretty serious, cat 5 hurricane direct hit expected.

Due to make landfall on the west side of the island, possibly hitting the area of Negril which has lots of hotels.

Expected winds of >170mph and pressure of 900mb...

Flooding might be significant. Worst case scenario currently from what I can see.

[pheonix478]

Big winds, big storm surge, massive rainfall going to cause mudslides not just flooding, direct hit and it's moving really, really slowly. Going to be really bad.

[Mortarboard]

Rainfall forecast for central jamaica- 20"-30"

https://www.nhc.noaa.gov/

M.

[mike9009]

Looks like it could be bad.

It has been an unusually quiet hurricane season this year in terms of US landfall.

Edited by mike9009 on Monday 27th October 20:56

[Pupp]

Crikey; I cannot imagine what wind speeds of that order must be like to have to endure… I get worried when I see anything 45+ forecast here. Hope the impact is less severe than seems indicated

[Gareth79]

A video from inside the eye:

https://x.com/JeremyDeHartWX/status/19828406700680...

I saw some data earlier, a sonde was dropped and measured a gust of 210kts at 100 metres height!

Edited by Gareth79 on Monday 27th October 21:38

[cherryowen]

There's a dedicated discussion thread on NetWeather that I've been dipping into during the day, and the consensus is that this could be catastrophic

Combination of unprecedented wind speeds, storm surge, and rainfall exacerbated by Jamaica's mountainous interior.

[Matt p]

This was as of 5pm local time to us in Grand Cayman.

Jamaica is in for a very very rough few days, ‘if’ it makes landfall as it’s forecasted to a lot of agricultural land is about to wiped off the map.

It’s 7.45pm here and it looks like it’s stalled again and travelling NW at 2mph with pressure now dropping to 909mb. This is a whisker off as bad as it can get

A few good websites are worth a watch in all the noise. Mr Weatherman and The National hurricane service are two very good ones.

[Matt p]

[InformationSuperHighway]

Gareth79 said:

A video from inside the eye:

https://x.com/JeremyDeHartWX/status/19828406700680...

I saw some data earlier, a sonde was dropped and measured a gust of 210kts at 100 metres height!

Edited by Gareth79 on Monday 27th October 21:38

I still find it astonishing that planes fly in and out of these storms.

I get scared with a few bumps over the Atlantic on a commercial flight, I can’t imagine being inside one of these planes doing this stuff.

[pheonix478]

InformationSuperHighway said:

I still find it astonishing that planes fly in and out of these storms.

I get scared with a few bumps over the Atlantic on a commercial flight, I can t imagine being inside one of these planes doing this stuff.

You fly in 100 to 200 mph winds just going trans Atlantic in a regular plane... the jet stream can knock an hour off your flight time when it's following. That said I saw reported that one of the NOAA Hurricane planes was forced to turn around and head home today because it was too rough!

[The Moose]

I can’t see this storm being anything other than devastating.

Having lived through the aftermath of a storm in FL that hit where I was living gusting 140ish mph, the idea of gusts nearly 100mph more of a slow moving storm hitting Jamaica fill me with dread.

[Pupp]

Remember, a few years ago, watching with morbid fascination some nutcase live streaming from somewhere in Florida (I think) on the defunct Periscope service as he drove around his town in a Hurricane. Mental

[ChocolateFrog]

Looks like it'll hit around mid day UK time and because it's moving so slowly will be over Jamaica for atleast 12 hours.

[lancslad58]

Various live feeds on the Youtube channel SeeJamaica


https://www.youtube.com/@SeeJamaica/streams

[gotoPzero]

Looks to be stalling out again, not quite hitting the jet stream which will make it do that sharp right turn.

[UTH]

InformationSuperHighway said:

Gareth79 said:

A video from inside the eye:

https://x.com/JeremyDeHartWX/status/19828406700680...

I saw some data earlier, a sonde was dropped and measured a gust of 210kts at 100 metres height!

Edited by Gareth79 on Monday 27th October 21:38

I still find it astonishing that planes fly in and out of these storms.

Ditto. I'd love to fly in one!

[gotoPzero]

Made its right turn now, will move at speed now towards the island as the jet stream starts to shift it. I think we will see land fall of the eye late this afternoon uk time.

[RustyMX5]

lancslad58 said:

Various live feeds on the Youtube channel SeeJamaica


https://www.youtube.com/@SeeJamaica/streams

I'm surprised that at the moment the sea state from the shore cam doesn't look too bad. I am expecting that to change though

[T_S_M]

Seen a few sources saying the pressure has dropped to 893mb now, with sustained winds of 180mph+.

There won’t be anything left at this rate?