NEW ORLEANS (WGNO) - Tropical Storm Melissa continues to linger and travel across the Caribbean, but it will soon intensify into a hurricane.

Melissa is currently about 220-miles southeast of Kingston, Jamaica and 280-miles southwest of Port Au Prince, Haiti.

Its maximum sustained winds have weakened down to 45-mph with its tropical-force winds extending outward from the center up to 115-miles.

Even though its maximum sustained winds have weakened, the storm continues to move in a north-northwestward motion near 2-mph.

The National Hurricane Center says that Melissa will "gradually strengthen" into a hurricane over the next day or so with "more rapid intensification" expected this weekend then later becoming a major hurricane.

The NHC forecasts that it will continue moving in a "slow

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