Met Service Discontinues Tropical Storm Warning Following Hurricane Melissa’s Passage

The Meteorological Service of Jamaica (Met Service) has discontinued the tropical storm warning for the country, following the passage of Hurricane Melissa.

The powerful Category Five system made landfall on Tuesday (October 28) in New Hope, Westmoreland, and exited east of Falmouth, Trelawny, later that evening.

Principal Director, Evan Thompson, provided the update from the National Emergency Operations Centre (NEOC) during a media briefing at the Office of Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Management (ODPEM) in Kingston on Wednesday (October 29).

“We are no longer within the scope of tropical storm-force winds that are associated with this system,” he advised.

Mr. Thompson noted, however, that Jamaica could still experience intermittent weather activity as the system continues to move northward.

“We are still in an unstable situation. We will likely experience more shower activity over sections of the country. We could also experience some strong gusty winds from time to time across the island. But, generally, we’re seeing that conditions are still very unstable,” he said.

Mr. Thompson indicated that rainfall could occur anywhere across the island, with the heaviest amounts, estimated at two to four inches, likely in the north-central and north-eastern regions.

“Over the southern and western parts of the island, we do expect that we will still experience some amount of rainfall as well – periods of rainfall. Outbreaks of rainfall may not be heavy but we do expect maybe one to two inches of rainfall, that’s 25 to 50 millimetres of rainfall over those sections of the country,” he advised.

Mr. Thompson shared that a flash flood watch remains in effect, as flooding remains a possibility for sections of the country, particularly in northern areas where heavier rainfall is more likely.

“The system is continuing to move towards the northeast. It’s now over eastern Cuba, expected to move over the southeastern part of The Bahamas and then out into the Atlantic Ocean, heading close towards Bermuda… that should occur by Friday (October 31) of this week.” he said.