Beryl strengthened into a hurricane on Saturday.
National Hurricane Center
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National Hurricane Center
The National Weather Service says Hurricane Beryl strengthened from a tropical storm to a “very dangerous” Category 3 hurricane over the weekend and is expected to grow even more powerful before it hits several Caribbean countries early this week.
Forecasters predict the massive storm system could become an “extremely dangerous” Category 4 hurricane before it reaches the Windward Islands on Monday.
On Sunday, hurricane warnings were issued for Barbados, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadine Islands, Grenada and Tobago. A tropical storm warning was issued for Martinique, while tropical storm watches were put in place for Dominica and Trinidad.
The record-breaking storm was 355 miles east of Barbados on Sunday and moving westward into the Caribbean Sea.
“The reality is that we must be prepared,” Barbados Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley said in a statement Friday, urging residents to stock up on medicine and keep important identification documents in case they need to evacuate.
On Sunday morning, Beryl had maximum sustained winds near 120 mph and was strengthening. Category 4 storms, which the National Hurricane Center says cause “catastrophic damage,” have maximum sustained winds between 130-156 mph.
Barbados and the Windward Islands are expected to receive three to six inches of rain, and Beryl could cause “potentially catastrophic” damage with strong winds. Forecasters say the major hurricane could also produce life-threatening storm surges of 6 to 9 feet above normal tide levels.
Beryl is a historic hurricane
National Hurricane Center forecaster John Cangialosi wrote in an advisory Friday that a named storm this far east in June is unusual. “There have been very few storms in history that have formed this early in the year in the central or eastern tropical Atlantic,” he wrote.
Beryl is the third-earliest Atlantic hurricane season, after Alma (1966) and Audrey (1957).
The storm is also notable because of how quickly it intensified. Beryl grew from a tropical depression to a major hurricane in just 39 hours. Sam Lillo, a weather researcher at forecasting group DTN, said in a tweet that this has only happened six times in Atlantic hurricane history. And the first time it happened was on September 1.
Beryl’s strength, location, and predicted path point to a storm forming not in June, but in late August or September.
Beryl is the second named storm in this year’s exceptionally busy hurricane season. Tropical Storm Alberto last week caused heavy flooding in parts of southern Texas and northeastern Mexico and caused four deaths in the region, according to the Associated Press.
Temperatures in the Atlantic Ocean have been “record-breaking” for the past year, and this extra heat fuels storms and can cause heavy rain and flooding. While climate scientists expected the oceans to warm, temperatures last year have been even warmer than expected.
The Atlantic hurricane season sees the most activity in mid-August, even though hurricane season begins on June 1. However, in a report released last month, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) predicted that this year’s hurricane season would be “above average,” with 17 to 25 named storms, eight to 13 hurricanes and four to seven major hurricanes of Category 3 or higher.
“The past is not necessarily prologue when it comes to future storms,” NOAA Administrator Rick Spinrad told reporters when the report was released in May. “This year, like any year, the most important thing is to be prepared and be prepared.”
Beryl’s intensity was fueled by warming temperatures deep in the Atlantic Ocean. The ocean’s heat content is the highest on record at this time, NOAA reports. Typically, the El Niño atmospheric oscillation helps suppress hurricane activity, but this pattern is waning, which would likely create a suitable environment for storms like Beryl.
