SARASOTA, Fla. (WWSB) - As of 11 p.m. Wednesday night tropical storm Melissa is looking rather ragged. This is due to a strong shear environment it is now located over. It is moving very slowly to the west at a snail’s pace and is expected to drift toward the NW over the upcoming days. Due to the strong winds from the west the center of Melissa is exposed with most of the storms being blown off to the east. Top winds remain at 50 mph and the pressure has not lowered, meaning it is still a weak tropical storm.

The shear is expected to weaken as Melissa moves over some very high octane oceanic heat content in the west Caribbean in about 3 days from now. The National Hurricane Center is forecasting it will become a major storm by Sunday with winds up to 130 mph as it moves very slowly toward

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