Tropical Storm Melissa is now projected to make landfall in Jamaica as a major hurricane early next week.

According to the Meteorological Service of Jamaica in its latest bulletin, Melissa is expected to rapidly strengthen while resuming a forward tract closer to the island.

It also upgraded the tropical storm warning to a hurricane warning for the island.

A hurricane warning means that within 36 hours there could be dangerously high water or a combination of dangerously high water and exceptionally high waves, even though winds expected may be less than hurricane force. It also means average winds 64 knots (199 km/h) or higher could affect the island within the same period.

At 7:00 pm, the centre of the storm was located about 360 kilometres (225 miles) southwest of Port-au-Prince, Haiti, and about 254 kilometres (159 miles) southeast of Morant Point, and 310 kilometres (190 miles) southeast of Kingston, the met office said.

It noted that on the forecast track, the centre of Melissa is expected to move from south to north over central Jamaica early next week.

In an interview with Nationwide News on Friday evening, Principal Director of the Met Service, Evan Thompson, said the storm is expected to intensify and will possibly be a Category 4 or Category 5 hurricane upon making landfall in Jamaica, if it continued on the projected path.

“The latest projection is that it would move across the island, moving from the south coast to the north coast, as a major hurricane. And this would happen sometime Tuesday,” he said.

Evans suggested that the impact of the storm could be catastrophic.

“We are seeing that there is the possibility of not only roofs being lifted, but significant structures being demolished,” he said. “We would be battered.”

The weather system is also expected to be a major rainfall producer over Jamaica. Rainfall amounts reaching 300 to 400 millimetres (12 to 16 inches) are forecast for the island over the weekend, starting in eastern parishes and gradually spreading westward across the island during the course of next week.

According to the met office, as the tropical storm moves closer to the island, expect strong, gusty winds reaching tropical storm force to initially affect eastern parishes later Friday evening and continuing into the weekend across the island.

Hurricane force winds are also possible from as early as Sunday, the met office said.