The NEXT Weather Team is tracking Hurricane Melissa as it spins through the Caribbean this weekend. Melissa intensified Saturday afternoon into a Category 1 hurricane. It will continue to strengthen before making landfall as a Major Category 4 hurricane in Jamaica on Tuesday.

Melissa is expected to strengthen from a tropical storm into a major hurricane this weekend, bringing “life-threatening and catastrophic” flash flooding and landslides to the Caribbean.

Melissa slammed Jamaica with 185 miles per hour winds on Tuesday, as the strongest hurricane to ever hit the Caribbean island. Officials reported heavy flooding, destroyed homes and buildings, downed trees, and widespread power outages.

Weather experts said they feared that if forecasts become less accurate, the public will lose faith in them — and the result will be that residents will be less likely to heed hurricane warnings and evacuate when their lives may be in danger.

The CLEO Institute on Thursday is honoring NBC6 hurricane specialist John Morales and the entire First Alert Weather team, along with Telemundo 51’s La Autoridad en el Tiempo, with its highest recognition,

It’s time to dust off your Uggs (or Fuggs) and pull that one musty coat you own out of the closet — the first cold front of the fall season has finally arrived!