Melissa’s 10-day run as a tropical cyclone – culminating in a catastrophic Category 5 strike on western Jamaica Tuesday – will end Friday as it transitions into a powerful non-tropical storm, clipping Atlantic Canada’s southern Avalon Peninsula tonight before heading swiftly out to sea.

The center of Hurricane Melissa is now about 150 miles northeast of the Bahamas, and impacts will continue to subside over the next several hours. Melissa maintains its category 2

Rainfall. Melissa is expected to bring an additional 4 to 8 inches across Jamaica, where storm total amounts will be between 12 to 24 inches. Isolated areas near 30 inches will be possible over mountainous terrain. Ongoing catastrophic flash flooding and numerous landslides will continue through Tuesday night.

Hurricane Melissa is among the strongest hurricanes to have formed in the Atlantic Ocean since records were kept, ranking as one the most powerful storms in terms of both wind strength and pressure.

Hurricane Melissa is moving slowly. It reached the coast of Jamaica this afternoon after stalling out over the Caribbean Sea for the past two days. And yet, the winds that form Melissa are shockingly fast.

Margaritaville at Sea Islander made a last-minute itinerary change to steer clear of Tropical Storm Melissa, which is in the Caribbean Sea.

Hurricane Melissa tore through earlier this week, leaving a trail of destruction that’s shaken the entire continent. Countries like Jamaica and Cuba were hit especially hard, now struggling to secure essential supplies and funds to rebuild.

Today, Today, several developments occurred. Melissa changed into hurricane, before turning into a Category 5 hurricane. Then, it weakened to a Category 4 hurricane and eventually became a Category 3 hurricane before being downgraded to a Category 3 hurricane with sustained winds of 125 mph.