A satellite photo showing the position of Tropical Storm Odette, at 7:00 last night.

AN out-of-season tropical storm threatened Jamaica last night, having already spawned up showers over large swathes of the island and caused flooding in the north and the east.

The hurricane season in the Caribbean usually runs from June to November. Rarely is there a storm in December, weather officials said.

But a storm, christened Odette, formed in the western Caribbean Sea yesterday and set a path towards the north-east, which meteorologists said would bring it within 112 miles east of Jamaica's western most tip, Morant Point, early today.

Jamaica, however, is expected to be spared a direct hit as Odette's path will take her through the Windward Passage, the area of sea between Jamaica, Cuba and Haiti, and into the northern Atlantic.

A tropical storm warning was in effect for Jamaica, Haiti and eastern Cuba, while storm watches were in effect for the Dominican Republic, The Bahamas and the Turks and Caicos islands.

"It is extremely unusual," said hurricane specialist Jack Beven at the National Hurricane Centre in Miami, Florida. "There has never been a tropical storm that formed in the western Caribbean ever in December."

At eight o'clock last night, the storm was about 266 miles south south-east of Kingston and moving north about nearly 11 miles an hour, with maximum sustained winds of 40 miles an hour and higher gusts. A slight in strength was forecast for today.

"We are still extending the storm warning," Bryan Bambury, senior meteorologist at the meteorological office at Kingston's Norman Manley Airport, said last night.

"By tomorrow morning (today) we are expecting windy conditions, moreso over the eastern side of the island," Bambury added.

Up to last night heavy showers and thunderstorms extended up to 250 miles from Odette's centre.

Several sections of the island begun receiving rainfall early in the day. The Office of Disaster Preparedness reported flooding in the northern parishes of St Ann and St Mary.

In St Ann, roads leading from Fern Gully into Ocho Rios, as well as sections of the town itself, were flooded while in St Mary the road between the districts of Jack River and Bailey's Vale was inundated.

In the St Mary parish capital of Port Maria, the fire brigade helped to evacuate children from the Port Maria Primary School, which is situated in a district where only heavy vehicles could brave the water.

Officials warned that such conditions could worsen.

"Residents in flood-prone areas ... are advised to be on the alert as some flooding is possible, particularly over the northern and eastern parishes," the Met Office said in a nighttime bulletin.

With the unstable weather, small craft were advised to come to shore and fishermen on the Morant and Pedro Cays, to the south and western of Jamaica were told to return to the mainland "until all warning messages have been lifted and wind and sea conditions have returned to normal".

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