Like a plane stuck circling an airport, waiting for a runway to land on, Melissa has been stuck in a holding pattern in the Caribbean with no exit for days — because there’s no other weather pattern to steer it anywhere else.
As the storm continues meandering at about one mile per hour, it is tricky to forecast and pinpoint when and where dangerous conditions may occur.
Since Melissa formed on Tuesday, the National Hurricane Center has repeatedly cited “significant uncertainty” about how strong the storm may become and where it will go. Some of that uncertainty lingered going into this weekend, though the near-term forecast had become much clearer:
Forecasters expect the storm to pose a significant threat of catastrophic flash flooding and damaging winds to Jamaica, Haiti and Cuba for several days.
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