5PM - Update! Melissa Makes Landfall at White House, Jamaica on the SW Coast with 185 MPH Winds & Moving NNE at 9 MPH
Current loop of Melissa.
Almost finished with Jamaica.
Center should be over water soon.
Warm water and could intensify.
How much remains to be seen.
It's hot water....
5 PM Advisory
Cat 4
145 MPH Winds
NNE at 8 MPH
921 MB AFTER crossing Jamaica!
Cone below.......
Time stamps above.
Watches and warnings.
Water temps below.
Love this site!
84 degree water for a Cat 4 Hurricane.
Shows the steering currents...
https://baynews9.com/fl/tampa/weather/tropical#Caribbean_Gulf_Winds-WX Spectrum News Tampa!
Speaking of Tampa here's an image of models, so you can see this is really going out to sea after Cuba and after the Bahamas and possibly after Bermuda but she's gone, gone, gone.
Sadly....it'll take a long, long time for Jamaica to recover and all the islands in her path. Tired of hearing "doesn't look so bad to me" while they sit in their chair, stuffing snacks in their mouth and they are a distant expert at damages on the ground far away in Jamaica. There are a lot of people like that. They are usually bitter, not happy people and they spew information around without seeing real images, being on the ground or believing anything. There's been flooding, raging flash floods and mud sliding down hillsides washing away whatever it could grab. Buildings have collapsed. People have died. Not every Cat 5 has to look as if the island was obliterated by a Nuclear Bomb. Seen damage up close after Cat 5 Hurricanes, Cat 4s and other Majors and it's amazing how much is standing and how much was taken gone with the wind.
There's weird science in hurricanes. One of my best friends lived down by where Andrew made landfall, his house was crazy ravaged and barely liveable yet as we were walking through the debris he showed me that all the pictures on the walls in the hallways and the bedrooms were left as if there had never been a breeze let alone a hurricane. A friend who was into "weird science" explained to us the wind came in from one side and whipped around the wall and everything on that wall so fast it left all the pictures hanging straight, the rest of the rooms were trashed. Drawers were ripped from dressers the contents tossed about the house as the sun shone through the broken roof. Bizarre stuff after Andrew. Bizarre stuff after a hurricane!
There's buildings that were built with little regard for tropical weather; cute arch ways and features are cute in New England that the wind grabbed off and then the successive gusts raged through the house and the gabled rooftops took flight. Amazingly other homes across the street were built by a different builder, a rectangular one story house CBS construction house with less windows were sitting there looking as if they went through a Major Hurricane but they survived with minimal damages. My father testified as a Master Appraiser BEFORE Andrew that the Country Walk Subdivision would not make it through a hurricane and he was right. Also placement of the homes in a subdivision matter; corner homes were ripped apart and yet the homes in the middle of the block suffered through Andrew "better" tho the street signs were blown away with the lights and most of the trees.
Jamaicans are wonderful people and they have amazing spirit and are not the type of people who make fun of others who are sitting faraway laughing how there's no way that was a Cat 5!
As we say in Miami "yeah, no" and in a way I feel sorry for people who are so bitter that they spew bitterness across the Internet.
And yet............there are many amazing, awesome people who worked together in private groups sharing information. Trying to get help to those who might need. Kind, caring and fairly awesome. Glad I was in such a group today. Sorry I watched some online that upset me with their negativity and bitterness and odd attempts at humor during a deadly tropical tragedy.
Actually watched
do a great job with a LIVE video on X (also YT) sharing information and calmly, covering the historic hurricane while taking time to reach out to people in the YT chat and discuss their thoughts or questions. I don't know him personally, nor the people he works with, tho I know people who respect him greatly so I watched. Well done.
Lastly, Brian Shields who "covers the Caribbean" and is in Jamaica does an amazingly good job of providing information without hype and giving advice and suggestions on how to stay safe if you are in a home that the roof is failing and how to cover your head or find things nearby to protect you. Something I learned with small kids in hurricanes, always keep your shoes on. Everyone must have shoes on (in Miami we all walk barefoot most the time on the cool Cuban Tile floors) and know where anything you need is so that in an emergency it's close by.
His video is below. Worth a watch and he talks on Cuba and the the Bahamas as those are the next travel destination on Melissa's Tropical Vacation.
Didn't mean to go long but in awe of the kind, good people sharing information that is carefully vetted vs people who are in a rush to either share fake AI pics for clicks and to make fun of a violent disaster because they dont' think it's a disaster enough. Choose your friends wisely as they tend to rub off on you!
...Melissa gets stronger
Or something happens..
Be safe...
Be Well..
Be Kind
Beware those fake AI videos ;)BobbiStorm
Map below shows where she made landfall.
A bit of a before travel video ....
....gives you a feel for the land.
The people, variety of homes.
Life before Melissa
I'll update after 5 PM.
Many buildings have been destroyed.
A medical center
Noon
Waiting on NHC confirmation of Landfall...
....recon had to turn around again.
Stronger than usual turbulence!
Protocal makes them return to base...
...check for any possible problems.
Song for the day... posting here.
Melissa making landfall slowly
Well sped up to 9 MPH NNE
11 AM
185 MPH Winds!
A Major in Cuba as well...
Sped up to 9 MPH NNE
What Category Major does Cuba get?
She's close to landfall now.
Hope & pray ppl stay inside by the eye.
Or don't venture away from where they are..
Daytime hurricane... people want to see.
Dangerous.........
Waiting on NHC confirmation of Landfall.
Center of the eye has to be there...
@icyclone checked in from Jamaica
Wind wild, he's next to where he's staying.
Riding out the Historic Hurricane.
Remember this is not just about Jamaica
or Cuba
or the Bahamas
Currently....Bermuda in it!
Hurricanes are part of the process of moving the air around the planet and after Melissa storms it's way up into the North Atlantic, more Winter like Arctic air is often released down into our latitudes in the USA. Again they transfer energy from the equatore to the Poles. Keeps Planet Earth a beautiful place to live. But at some point if you live in the tropics you may get a visitor that you did not wish to ever host. Just saying.
Woke up this morning to this.
Devil at Dawn was my 1st thought.
10 AM Update.
185 MPH Winds!
892 MB.
Message from NHC:
Winds higher... pressure lower.
at 11 winds could be higher.
often go up with pressure dropping.
Will update after 11 AM!
keep reading as it's recent.
Melissa is mind-blowing!!
....stronger winds
Hurricane Melissa
180 Winds
896 Pressure
Strengthening on landfall!
Lessons from this Tragedy I hope.
Lessons for 2026 & beyond....
1) "take the time right now to note the items ...
...around you that can keep you safe
if your structure falls"
Thank you Brian Shields for reminding people.
2) Places in the direct path of Melissa.
Hanover.
St. James.
Trelawny.
St. Ann.
Westmoreland.
St. Elizabeth.
Manchester.
Clarendon.
Posted this on X earlier.
I will update after the 11 AM.
There is so much to say and yet words cannot convey the hurricane horrors happening along the SW Coast of Jamaica as her surge surges, her winds go wild, her barometric pressure dropping... see small round "core" that will move over ALL of Jamaica. Haiti, further to the East getting relentless weather and there will be horrific, deadly mudslides there.
Cuba not far to her North is her next adventure. Beyond that the Bahamas in the Cone & Bermuda waits to see if it really makes another landfall on their little island in the large ocean. Melissa is a monster on multiple levels. The last time you will see this name used on a hurricane list, that I can promise you.
But years from now when you are watching another powerful Cat 5 form in the Caribbean you will hear over & over "well Melissa......." as her name is now a part of the Hurricane History.
posted by BobbiStorm @ 7:09 AM
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