A hurricane alert was issued across the southeastern Caribbean on Sunday as Beryl strengthened into the first hurricane of the 2024 Atlantic season, with forecasters warning it will rapidly become a major hurricane.
The US National Hurricane Center (NHC) said Beryl – which is currently moving over the Atlantic Ocean about 530 miles (850 kilometers) east of Barbados – is expected to bring “life-threatening winds and storm surge” when it reaches the Windward Islands on Monday morning.
Warning that the storm would “intensify”, the NHC forecast it would become a “dangerous major hurricane” by the time it reaches Caribbean communities.
In its latest advisory, the NHC said Barbados, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, and Grenada are all under hurricane warnings, while tropical storm warnings or watches are in effect for Martinique, Tobago, and Dominica.
In the Barbadian capital, Bridgetown, queues of vehicles lined up at petrol stations, while supermarkets and grocery stores were crowded with people buying food, water and other supplies. Some homes were already locked up.
A major hurricane is considered a Category 3 or above on the Saffir-Simpson scale, with wind speeds of at least 111 miles per hour (179 kilometers per hour).
Experts said it’s extremely rare for such a powerful storm to form so early in the Atlantic hurricane season (which runs from early June to late November).
“Only five major (Category 3+) hurricanes have ever been recorded in the Atlantic before the first week of July. Beryl will be the sixth and the first to form in the tropical Atlantic far east,” hurricane expert Michael Lowry wrote on social media platform X.
By 2:00 a.m. (0600 GMT) on Sunday, Beryl’s maximum sustained wind speeds had increased to near 90 mph, with gusts also higher, the NHC said.
“Stormy conditions are expected to develop throughout the hurricane warning area through Monday morning,” it said, warning of heavy rain, flooding and storm surges that could cause water levels to rise up to 7 feet (2.1 meters) above normal.
“Catastrophic wind damage is expected where Beryl’s eyewall passes through portions of the Windward Islands,” the NHC said, indicating that wind speeds in some locations could be as much as 30 percent higher than those listed in their advisory.
Under the Saffir-Simpson wind scale, Category 1 hurricanes have winds of at least 74 mph, while Category 5 storms have winds of 157 mph or more.
The U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said in late May that this year’s hurricane season is expected to be “exceptional,” with up to seven storms of Category 3 or higher.
The agency cited warmer temperatures in the Atlantic Ocean and conditions related to the seasonal phenomenon La Nina in the Pacific Ocean for the expected increase in storms.
Extreme weather events, including hurricanes, have become more frequent and more destructive in recent years as a result of climate change.
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