Weather tracker: Jamaica braces for its most powerful hurricane as Melissa nears category 5

Record-breaking hurricane expected to make landfall on Tuesday with 160mph winds, while New Zealand reels from storm damageThe Caribbean is bracing for Hurricane Melissa, one of the most powerful to ever strike the region. Melissa began as a cluster of thunderstorms off the coast of west Africa, which travelled west and developed into a depression, reaching tropical storm status to the north of Venezuela on 21 October. Rapid intensification over the weekend strengthened Melissa to category 4 as it slowly meandered west through the Caribbean Sea.Melissa is expected to reach category 5 intensity on Monday night, veering north-east towards Jamaica before making landfall tomorrow by about midday, with peak winds of 160mph (257km/h), which would make it the strongest of only five hurricanes ever recorded to hit Jamaica directly. The most recent, and before now the most powerful, was Hurricane Gilbert in 1988, which brought gusts of 130mph. Continue reading...