The National Hurricane Center stated on Sunday that as Hurricane Beryl gets closer to the Windward Islands, it has strengthened into a Category 4 storm that is “extremely dangerous” and could bring life-threatening winds and storm surge to the Caribbean. The center stated in a late-afternoon advisory that Beryl strengthened over two days, peaking at Category 4 strength on a scale of 5 on Sunday before leveling out. The hurricane center predicted that the storm, which had sustained gusts of 130 mph, would likely be a devastating force through the first part of the week as it headed toward a potential confrontation with Mexico’s Yucatán peninsula sometime around the following weekend.
In a separate forecast discussion, the center stated, “It is anticipated that Beryl will also fluctuate in strength for the next day or so. Strength fluctuations are common in major hurricanes in conducive environments.” “There is high confidence that Beryl will remain an extremely dangerous hurricane through landfall in the Windward Islands.” The agency stated that hurricane conditions, including intense rain, are predicted for Sunday evening and that the core of the storm is likely to sweep across the Windward Islands early on Monday. St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Grenada, and Martinique are among the Windward Islands. With winds as high as 130 mph for the duration, Beryl was located approximately 200 miles southeast of Barbados on Sunday night. At eighteen miles per hour, it was heading northwest. Barbados, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Grenada, and Tobago are under a U.S. hurricane warning, meaning that hurricane conditions could develop there as early as Monday. Barbados’ government ordered all businesses to close by 7 p.m. on Sunday and started opening emergency shelters that evening. In a precautionary measure, the Barbados Water Authority requested that people stockpile drinkable water as it planned to turn off water pipes throughout the island on Sunday night, according to a statement.
The storm was 355 miles east-southeast of Barbados and traveling west at 21 mph around 11 a.m. on Sunday
From Beryl’s center, hurricane-force and tropical-storm-force winds radiate outward for up to 15 and 80 miles, respectively. Barbados, St. Lucia, St. Vincent, Tobago, the Grenadine Islands, and Grenada are under a hurricane warning; Martinique is under a tropical storm warning. There is a tropical storm watch in place for Trinidad and Dominica. The hurricane center’s forecasters commented, “Development this far east in late June is unusual.” “To be honest, historically, this early in the year, very few storms have formed over the eastern or central tropical Atlantic.”
Forecasters warned on Sunday that Beryl is predicted to continue to be a strong storm for the next five days. South Florida is not anticipated to be impacted by Beryl. A tropical wave in the eastern Atlantic was assigned a 40% chance of forming in the next two days and a 70% chance in the following seven days. This wave is expected to proceed toward the eastern and central Caribbean and might become a tropical depression by midweek. According to predictions, it will travel west at a speed of 15 to 20 mph. Forecasters estimated that the system with an 80% chance of developing into Tropical Storm Chris would do so in the next two days. On Monday, it is expected to pass over inland Mexico.
Debby will be the second storm to emerge after Chris
Last week, the first tropical storm of the 2024 season formed in the western Gulf of Mexico. Dubbed Alberto, the cyclone produced flooding and storm surge 500 miles distant in Louisiana but made landfall in Mexico 250 miles south of the U.S. border. The official 2024 hurricane season started on June 1st, and it is predicted to be a very active season. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration stated in its yearly May prediction that there is an 85% probability that the 2024 hurricane season would be above average, with eight to thirteen hurricanes and 17 to 25 named storms with minimum sustained winds of 39 mph. Seven hurricanes and fourteen named storms occur in an average year.
Furthermore, four to seven major hurricanes—that is, hurricanes classified as Category 3 or higher—have been predicted by NOAA for 2024. According to Colorado State University experts’ 2024 estimate, there was a 34% possibility that a significant hurricane would make landfall this year in the U.S. East Coast, which includes Florida. Between 1880 and 2020, the average was 21%. The record-warm water temperatures that currently blanket a large portion of the Atlantic Ocean, according to forecasters, will persist during the August–October peak hurricane season. Hurricanes are fueled by that warm water. The tropical Atlantic reached its peak storm season in early June, with temperatures comparable to those of mid-August.
She remarked, “Some of them have never experienced a storm before”
Mottley issued a warning that the airport would close by nightfall and advised all companies to close by Sunday evening. In a video aired on social media on Saturday night, Kemar Saffrey, the president of a Barbados organization dedicated to ending homelessness, stated that people who don’t have a place to live often believe they can weather hurricanes because they have done it in the past. He urged Barbados to send homeless people to shelters and warned that Beryl is a deadly storm. “I don’t want that to be the approach that they take,” he said. Wilfred Abrahams, the minister of information and home affairs, echoed his remarks. He declared, “At this point, I need Barbadians to be their brother’s keeper.” “There are vulnerable people.” Philip J. Pierre, the prime minister of St. Lucia, declared that businesses and schools would be closed on Monday and that a nationwide shutdown would take place on Sunday night. “Life preservation and protection are top priorities,” he declared. Leaders in the Caribbean were bracing not only for Beryl but also for a ring of thunderstorms that would follow the hurricane and have a 70% probability of developing into a tropical depression.
Mottley advised, “Do not let your guard down.” In the Atlantic, the hurricane season is expected to be above average, with Beryl becoming the second named storm in the Atlantic from June 1 to November 30. Four people lost their lives when Tropical Storm Alberto made landfall in northeastern Mexico earlier this month due to its strong rainfall. With between 17 and 25 named storms, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration projects that the 2024 hurricane season will be significantly above average. Up to 13 hurricanes and four major hurricanes are predicted by the forecast. Seven hurricanes and three major hurricanes are produced during an average Atlantic hurricane season, out of 14 named storms.