Hurricane Beryl, which became the season’s first major hurricane Sunday, made landfall Monday in the Grenadine Islands north of Grenada as a powerful Category 4 storm with sustained winds of 155 mph, just shy of the Category 5 threshold.
Beryl was packing “life-threatening winds and storm surge” of as much as 6 to 9 feet, and 3 to 6 inches of rain, across Barbados and the Windward Islands on its approach to the far eastern Caribbean on Monday, according to the National Hurricane Center.
As of 8 p.m. Monday, its winds had increased from 150 mph to 155 mph, just shy of the 157 mph cut-off for a Category 5 hurricane. Beryl was about 575 miles east-southeast of Isla Beata in the Dominican Republic and traveling west-northwest at 21 mph. Forecasters expect it to maintain its major-hurricane status as it sweeps into the Caribbean Sea.
Hurricane-force winds extend outward up to 40 miles from the center and tropical-storm-force winds extend outward up to 125 miles.
Most of Jamaica, Belize and parts of Mexico were within Beryl’s cone Monday. Jamaica has issued a hurricane warning and hurricane conditions are possible there by Wednesday.
A tropical storm warning is in effect for the Dominican Republic from Punta Palenque westward to the border with Haiti and the entire south coast of Haiti from the border of the Dominican Republic to Anse d’Hainault.
“Development this far east in late June is unusual,” the forecasters at the hurricane center said. “In fact, there have only been a few storms in history that have formed over the central or eastern tropical Atlantic this early in the year.”
“Beryl is the easternmost hurricane and ‘major hurricane’ to form in the tropical Atlantic during the month of June,” the Weather Channel reported.
Beryl is expected to remain a significant hurricane as it moves through the eastern Caribbean and may weaken some by midweek, but will remain a hurricane, forecasters said Monday.
It is not expected to affect South Florida, but should pass near Jamaica on Wednesday and reach the Yucatan Peninsula by Friday.
Once the storm crosses the Yucatan and is over water once again, it will be weaker, but its potential path broadens, and could include Southern Texas.
Meanwhile, Tropical Storm Chris, which formed hours earlier, has dissipated as it moved inland near Tuxpan, Mexico. The system is expected to bring heavy rain to eastern Mexico.
Forecasters also said that a tropical wave, located about 1,000 miles east of the Windward Islands in the Atlantic on Monday, could become a tropical depression by midweek as it moves toward the eastern and central Caribbean.
It has a 20% chance of developing in the next two days and a 40% chance in the next seven days as of 8 p.m. Monday.
It is expected to move west at 15 mph to 20 mph, forecasters said.
The next storm to form would be Debby.
The western Gulf of Mexico generated the 2024 season’s first tropical storm last week. Dubbed Alberto, the system made landfall in Mexico 250 miles south of the U.S. border, but sent storm surge and flood to spots 500 miles away in Louisiana.
The 2024 hurricane season, which officially began June 1, is expected to be extremely active.
In its annual May outlook, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said that the 2024 hurricane season has an 85% chance of being above normal, with 17 to 25 named storms with minimum sustained winds of 39 mph, and eight to 13 hurricanes. An average year has 14 named storms and seven hurricanes.
In addition, NOAA has forecast four to seven major hurricanes for 2024, meaning those that are Category 3 or above.
Experts at Colorado State University stated in their 2024 forecast that the U.S. East Coast, including Florida, had a 34% chance of a major hurricane making landfall this year. The average from 1880-2020 was 21%.
Forecasters say that the record-warm water temperatures that now cover much of the Atlantic Ocean will continue into peak hurricane season from August to October. That warm water fuels hurricanes. By early June, the tropical Atlantic was already as hot as it usually is in mid-August — peak hurricane season.
Hurricane season officially ends Nov. 30.
