Beryl is a Category 4 hurricane; it continues heading towards the Caribbean

Hurricane Beryl has become a very dangerous Category 4 storm in the Atlantic Ocean and is expected to bring life-threatening winds and flash flooding to the Windward Islands of the Caribbean as it rapidly strengthens, the National Hurricane Center said. United States in Miami.

The first hurricane of the 2024 season was located about 565 kilometers (350 miles) east-southeast of Barbados on Sunday morning, with maximum sustained winds of 215 kilometers (133 mph), the center said in an advisory.

It is unusual for a major hurricane to appear so early in the Atlantic hurricane season, which runs from June 1 to November 30. On Sunday, Beryl became the earliest Category 4 hurricane on record, surpassing Hurricane Dennis, which became a Category 4 on July 8, 2005, according to NHC data.

Hurricane watches have been issued for Barbados, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Grenada and Tobago.

Forecasters warned those islands to prepare for up to 15 centimeters of rain and that Beryl would raise water levels up to 2.74 meters above normal tides where the hurricane made landfall.

“This is a very dangerous situation for the Leeward and Windward Islands,” the hurricane center warned.

St. Vincent and the Grenadines Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves said in a public address on Saturday that shelters would open on Sunday night and urged people to prepare. He ordered officials to refuel government vehicles and asked grocery stores and gas stations to stay open later before the storm.

Beryl is expected to pass south of Barbados on Monday morning and move into the Caribbean as a major hurricane heading toward Jamaica. Forecasters believe it will weaken towards the middle of the week, but will continue at hurricane strength on its way to Mexico.

Warm waters are fueling the new hurricane, and ocean heat content in the deep Atlantic is the highest on record for this time of year, according to Brian McNoldy, a tropical meteorology researcher at the University of Miami.

Beryl is also the strongest June tropical storm on record this far east in the tropical Atlantic.

The U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration predicts the 2024 hurricane season will be well above average, with 17 to 25 named storms. Up to 13 hurricanes and four Category 3 or higher hurricanes are expected.

An average Atlantic hurricane season produces 14 named storms, seven of them hurricanes and three of them Category 3 or higher hurricanes.

[Con información de AP y Reuters]

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