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 is not expected to make landfall in Florida or the U.S. The powerful storm made landfall on Jamaica Tuesday morning and on Cuba early Wednesday morning. It's expected to move across the Bahamas later today and passes near Bermuda on Thursday night.

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.

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

Hurricane Melissa made landfall in Cuba overnight after battering Jamaica as one of the most powerful landfalling storms in Atlantic basin history.

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.

I was sitting in the middle of a 10-mile-wide stadium of the gods. On all sides, hulking thunderstorms towered high above. Just miles in any direction, a hellish-monster creating unsurvivable conditions.