WHY DOES a tropical storm like Gustav behave like a vindictive child?

A storm, which had a northwest trajectory and seemed set to pass between Jamaica's north coast and Cuba's south coast, decided overnight that it needed to pay Jamaica a visit.

So, what it did was to take a southwest turn, where it would line up directly with Jamaica. The rest is history - wind and rainfall that devastated sections of the island.

Evan Thompson, head of the Meteorological Service's weather branch, told The Gleaner that a possible reason for Gustav homing in on Jamaica was that it became disorganised after leaving Haiti.

"It might have been that, because it moved over the southwest area of Haiti, the hilly terrain there caused it to get disorganised," Thompson said.

The meteorologist surmised that the disorganised system weakened as it left land but reorganised itself just as it moved across the warm waters of the Caribbean Sea.

"One of the possibilities is that after it got disorganised, the centre of the system got dislodged," Thompson added.

He said that, in reforming, Gustav's eye was located southwest of its original position, putting it in pole position to strike Jamaica at full blast.