Copyright egyptindependent
There’s a lot of focus on when Melissa will officially make landfall in Jamaica, but that moment isn’t the most important part of this storm. Right now, Melissa is still crawling north-northwest at 2 mph and the eye of the hurricane is likely to reach the southern coast of Jamaica sometime late Tuesday morning. But the storm’s buzz-saw-like impacts will start hours earlier. Because Melissa is moving so slowly, its damaging winds, flooding rain and storm surge will last far longer than just the moment of landfall. In other words: the clock doesn’t start when the eye crosses the coast — the storm is already arriving.
