Hurricane Melissa, currently moving quickly northeastwards away from Bermuda, poses no threat to Ireland or western Europe.

The storm is in the process of transitioning into an extra-tropical system and is expected to weaken steadily over the weekend before dissipating south of Iceland by Tuesday.

At 9am Irish Time on Friday the US National Hurricane Centre placed the centre of Melissa about 410 kilometres north of Bermuda, moving northeast at about 67 km/h with maximum sustained winds near 150 km/h. The hurricane is forecast to pass south of Newfoundland tonight before losing tropical characteristics.

While the system will contribute to large swells across parts of the North Atlantic, including the coasts of Atlantic Canada and the northeastern United States, no direct effects are expected in Ireland or Britain.

Ireland’s current weather pattern is being driven by a mobile Atlantic airflow bringing occasional rain and strong winds, a typical pattern for early November. This unsettled regime is expected to persist over the next ten days.

There is no evidence to support claims of any exceptional storm threat linked to Melissa, despite such claims being published in the national media today.

Melissa originated from a tropical wave first monitored on 16 October, became Tropical Storm Melissa on 21 October, rapidly intensified to a major hurricane and reached catastrophic strength before making landfalls in the Caribbean this week.