Saturday afternoon Melissa strengthened into a hurricane and within a few hours is up to a category 2 storm. As of the 7 PM Central report from the National Hurricane Center, Hurricane Melissa was located about 130 miles southeast of Kingston, Jamaica.

The storm is forecast to strengthen to a category 5 by Monday before making direct landfall on Jamaica. A Hurricane Warning has been issued for the island where the NHC warns "life-threatening and catastrophic flash flooding and landslides" are expected. Parts of Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Cuba, and the Bahamas are also on alert for potential impacts from this hurricane.

As a reminder, hurricane ratings only come from wind speed. No other threats are factored into the category ratings such as storm surge, flooding, rainfall, torando

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