Tropical Storm Melissa is expected to rapidly intensify over the weekend into a Category 4 hurricane, according to the National Hurricane Center. The slow-moving storm is forecast to bring "life-threatening and catastrophic flash flooding and landslides to southern Hispaniola and Jamaica through the weekend.

Melissa made its first landfall on Tuesday in southwest Jamaica as a powerful Category 5 hurricane with 185 mph winds. The hurricane center said Melissa was a Category 2 storm on Wednesday morning as it prepared to emerge off the northern coast of Cuba and into the southwestern Atlantic.

A hurricane forms when warm, moist air rises from the ocean surface and creates a spinning system of clouds and storms. In the centre, air sinks, creating the eye, a calm, cloud-free zone surrounded by a wall of violent winds and rain known as the eye-wall.

Here's a look at where Tropical Storm Melissa is, where it's headed and the impacts it could have in Sarasota.

Tropical Storm Melissa is nearly stationary in the central Caribbean, with forecasters warning it could soon strengthen and brush past Jamaica as a powerful hurricane.

Hurricane Melissa has hit Cuba after leaving a trail of destruction in Jamaica, though the full extent of its impact remains unclear. Watch and follow live below.

Hurricane Melissa intensified to a Category 5 storm on Monday and continued to strengthen as it moved closer to Jamaica, where it was forecast to cause life-threatening flash flooding, landslides, and devastating damage to infrastructure. It arrived on the island’s southwestern coast around noon local time Tuesday.

Lightning flashes in the eyewall of Category 5 Melissa are a marker of how strong the storm is. It reached a central pressure of 892 millibars, among the lowest ever recorded in the Atlantic Ocean. It is tied as the third-most intense Atlantic storm with the devastating 1935 Labor Day hurricane.