Forecasters with the National Hurricane Center say Tropical Storm Melissa formed over the warm waters of the Caribbean Sea late Tuesday morning.
Forecasters with the National Hurricane Center (NHC) say Tropical Storm Melissa formed over the warm waters of the Caribbean Sea late Tuesday morning, prompting Hurricane and Tropical Storm Watches to be issued in advance of expected impacts.
Tropical Storm Melissa, which had originally been designated Invest 98L, is expected to continue to strengthen and is forecast to become a hurricane as it meanders in the central Caribbean over the next several days.
According to the NHC, Tropical Storm Melissa has maximum sustained winds of 50 mph, and the storm is forecast to strengthen into at least a Category 1 hurricane by the weekend.
Tropical Storm Melissa is currently located about 300 miles to the south of Port-au-Prince, Haiti, and is moving off to the west at 13 mph.
