Hurricane Melissa is edging towards Jamaica and set to make landfall as a historic Category 5 storm, with winds of over 160 mph. Jamaica is bracing for what the National Hurricane Center said would be catastrophic flash flooding and landslides caused by up to 40 inches of rain in some places. The storm is due to make landfall early Tuesday.

Jamaica is expected to be in the storm's eyewall, which refers to the band of dense clouds surrounding the eye of the hurricane. The eyewall generally produces the fiercest winds and heaviest rainfall, according to Deanna Hence, a professor of climate, meteorology and atmospheric sciences at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

Hurricane Melissa strengthened into a Category 5 hurricane Monday morning and forecasters warn more strengthening is possibe.

MELISSA EXPECTED TO BRING CATASTROPHIC AND LIFE-THREATENING WINDS, FLOODING, AND STORM SURGE TO JAMAICA LATER TONIGHT AND ON TUESDAY... Melissa expected to begin to to turn north overnight into Tuesday.

The U.S. Navy relocated hundreds of nonessential personnel from Naval Station Guantanamo Bay to Florida over the weekend.

The eye of Melissa is almost certain to make landfall on the south coast of Jamaica on Tuesday morning and pass over the north coast by Tuesday afternoon. While there is still a slight chance the center of the storm will slide around the island, forecasters say this will have little change in the overall threat.