A Weather Channel satellite photo showing the location of Tropical Storm Claudette, just before 8:00 last night, and the project which could carry it over Jamaica.

TROPICAL Storm Claudette was bearing down on Jamaica last night, and meteorological and disaster management officials warned the island to brace today for winds upwards of 53 miles an hour, or higher, unless the weather system does a dramatic shift away from the island.

At seven o'clock last night, the storm was approximately 378 miles east southeast of Kingston, travelling westward at about 25 miles an hour -- a path which, if maintained, would bring the eye of the storm over Jamaica by midday and sideswipe mostly the south and southwest of the island. With the winds and rains extending widely from its centre, Claudette's impact will likely be felt elsewhere in Jamaica.

"The storm is expected to remain on this path," Karen McKenzie, a forecaster at the meteorological office told the Observer last night.

Claudette was last night packing sustained winds of 53 miles an hour, but the Met Office said that there were higher gusts associated with the storm.

Tropical storm force winds, between 40 and 73 miles an hour, extended up to about 69 miles.

Brian Banbury, section head at the meteorological office, had earlier estimated that Jamaica would start to experience rains this morning and feel the effects of the high winds for most of today. "Conditions could possibly extend into Thursday, depending on how it develops," he said.

Banbury expected that the storm would pass "within 50 miles south of Jamaica by Wednesday, bringing showers and strong winds across the entire country".

As the storm warning emerged yesterday, the Office of Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Management (ODPEM) advised Jamaicans to start taking precautions to protect life and property and called on its parish teams and other agencies "to activate their disaster plans".

The National Emergency Operations Centre had also been activated, the ODPEM said.

At the same time, a small craft warning was put into effect and the Met Office told fishermen on the Morant and Pedro Cays to evacuate immediately and return to the mainland by midnight as sea conditions, especially east and south of the island, would deteriorate due to strong northeasterly winds and thundershowers.

"Other small craft operators in our coastal waters are advised to return to port and those in port should not venture out," the Met Office said.

The appearance of the storm was apparently not only surprising, but did not appear to grab people's attention up to late yesterday evening. The crowds that normally descend on supermarkets when such warnings are posted were absent.

"It seems no one knows of it," said Raymond Rafi, manager of Public Supermarket on Constant Spring Road in Kingston.

Added Rachael McCarthy, a supervisor at Sovereign supermarket at the Sovereign Mall in Liguanea: "There were times before when they said we were having storms and nothing happened. Maybe the people are hoping that this is one of those times."

A few other supermarkets had a slightly higher than usual traffic for a Tuesday.

"All our cashiers are busy and the crowd is building up," said Icylin Lee of Lee's Food Fair on Red Hills Road, Kingston.

The Met Office's McKenzie said that up to Monday, Claudette was a tropical wave moving across the Atlantic. "It became stronger as it moved towards the east," she explained. "When it passed across the Eastern Caribbean yesterday (Monday) it was a strong tropical wave. Sometime today (yesterday) they found a centre."

It was eventually upgraded to a tropical storm.

McKenzie suggested that based on the storm's attitude yesterday it grew stronger, slowed then sped substantially.

"If continues on this trend it will become stronger before it reaches," she added.

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