Hurricane season

Hurricane Melissa grows in strength – approaching Jamaica

Hurricane Melissa, which is moving across the Caribbean Sea towards Jamaica, among other places, is rapidly growing in strength, writes USA Today. The hurricane is currently a category three on the five-point scale but is expected to grow to category five, with wind speeds of over 70 meters per second.

The hurricane has already caused at least three deaths in Haiti and damaged at least 200 homes in the neighboring Dominican Republic. Half a million people there are also without drinking water after the hurricane's advance.

Jamaica crouching: "Never experienced this before"

Hurricane Melissa is expected to have catastrophic consequences when it reaches Jamaica early next week. This is what Evan Thompson of the country's meteorological authority says, according to USA Today.

- We have never experienced this before. It is important that we understand that this is an extraordinary event, says Thompson.

Hurricane-force winds are expected to reach the island nation on Monday. At the same time, rain is expected in such quantities that it is difficult for people to imagine, Thompson warns.

He also warns that the strength of the hurricane will likely make subsequent rescue efforts both more difficult and delayed.

Warm ocean water makes the hurricane extra dangerous

Hurricane Melissa is moving towards Jamaica over some of the warmest ocean areas in the world, which contributes to it being expected to reach Category 5 – the highest – and become the island nation's worst hurricane in history, writes the Washington Post.

That climate change is making hurricanes stronger is unequivocal, but scientists suspect that another effect is that they move slower and thus dump larger amounts of rain on the same place.

– There is a lot of evidence that it is happening more and more often now, says Jim Kossin, a retired climate scientist and hurricane expert at the US agency NOAA.

He calls Hurricane Harvey a “textbook example” of the phenomenon. It moved so slowly across Texas in 2017 that in some places over 5 feet of rain fell in the same spot.