Hurricane Beryl intensified significantly over night, becoming a Category 4 hurricane today. The storm, which will threaten the Caribbean in the coming days, is the strongest, earliest storm to ever form on record in the Atlantic hurricane basin. Once Beryl’s maximum sustained winds exceed 125 mph, it became the strongest June hurricane on record, replacing Audrey which held the record since 1957. Now that it’s a category 4 storm on the Saffir-Simpson wind scale, it now beats out Hurricane Dennis’s record of earliest storm at this category since July 8, 2005.
The National Hurricane Center (NHC) reported that at 11:35 am AT, NOAA and Air Force Reserve hurricane hunter aircraft data showed that Beryl strengthened to an extremely dangerous category 4 hurricane. At that time, the storm was located at 10.8N 54.9W which is about 350 miles east-southeast of Barbados and about 460 miles east of Grenada. Minimum central pressure was down to 962 mb while the storm was moving fairly quickly to the west at 21 mph.
With the storm heading west, Hurricane Warnings are in effect now for Barbados, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadine Islands, Grenada, and Tobago. A Tropical Storm Warning is in effect for Martinique while a Tropical Storm Watch is up for Dominica and Trinidad.
“This is a very dangerous situation and residents in these areas should listen to local government and emergency management officials for any preparedness and/or evacuation orders. All preparations should be rushed to completion today,” warned the National Hurricane Center.
The NHC is warning that potentially catastrophic hurricane-force winds, a life-threatening storm surge, and damaging waves are expected when Beryl passes over portions of the Windward Islands with the highest risk of the core in St. Vincent and the Grenadines and Grenada beginning early Monday morning. Heavy rain and flooding conditions are also expected across the Windward Islands through Monday.
Beryl is expected to remain a powerful hurricane as it moves across the Caribbean Sea later this week. The NHC says that interests in Hispaniola, Jamaica, and the Cayman Islands, as well as the remainder of the northwestern Caribbean, should monitor the future progress of this storm.
