With destructive winds and storm surge fueled by the Atlantic’s record warmth, Hurricane Beryl strengthened to scale-topping Category 5 status late Monday after tearing off doors, windows, and roofs from homes across the Southeast Caribbean. Early on Monday, the National Hurricane Center in Miami reported Beryl was still intensifying. Beryl was the first Atlantic Category 4 hurricane to make landfall on the island of Carriacou in Grenada. Later in the day, the storm center reported that Beryl’s winds had strengthened to Category 5, which is defined as gusts of 157 mph or more. The storm was expected to intensify and then weaken significantly as it moved farther into the Caribbean over the next few days. According to the National Hurricane Center, Beryl is only the second Category 5 storm to be recorded in July since 2005 and the earliest Category 5 hurricane ever recorded in the Atlantic basin. Dickon Mitchell, the prime minister of Grenada, said that one person had passed away and that he could not confirm if there were any more deaths at this time because of the authorities inability to evaluate the situation on the islands of Carriacou and Petite Martinique, where there were initial reports of significant damage but communications were mainly down.
According to Mitchel, officials will visit the islands early on Tuesday to assess the situation. Shoes, trees, downed power lines, and other debris littered the streets from St. Lucia Island south to Grenada. Half-baked banana trees and lifeless cows rested in verdant meadows, with tin and plywood dwellings tipped precariously close by. By late Thursday, Beryl, still a Category 1 storm, was still sweeping the southeast Caribbean early Tuesday on a path that took her just south of Jamaica and near the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico. It strengthened further early on Tuesday morning to 165 mph winds, reaching Category 5 strength late on Monday.
With Beryl’s arrival, the Atlantic hurricane season has begun unusually early
It turned into the only Category 4 in June and the earliest Category 4 in Atlantic Ocean history on Sunday. Unusually warm ocean waters made Beryl’s worrying strengthening possible, which is a glaring sign that this hurricane season will differ greatly from usual because of global warming brought on by fossil fuel pollution. According to Jim Kossin, a hurricane expert and science advisor at the nonprofit First Street Foundation, Beryl is shattering records because the ocean is currently as warm as it would ordinarily be at the height of hurricane season. Kossin told CNN that hurricanes “don’t know what month it is; they only know what their ambient environment is.” “Beryl believes it’s September, so she’s breaking records for June.” The ocean heat that is causing Beryl to strengthen to an unprecedented degree “certainly have a human fingerprint on them,” Kossin continued. On Monday morning, Hurricane Beryl makes landfall.
As of Monday night, the storm had sustained winds of 160 mph, was 510 miles east-southeast of Isla Beata in the Dominican Republic, and was traveling 22 mph toward the west-northwest. The hurricane-force winds produced by Beryl reach 40 miles from the center, while the tropical storm-force winds reach roughly 125 miles. The center of the storm is predicted to depart the southern Windward Islands on Monday night, travel through Tuesday across the southeastern and central Caribbean Sea, and pass close to Jamaica on Wednesday. By Wednesday, hurricane conditions are predicted to approach Jamaica’s coast, according to the NHC. Additionally, there are tropical storm warnings in place for the south coasts of Haiti and the Dominican Republic, extending from Anse-d’Hainault to Punta Palenque and the border with Haiti, respectively.
Where Beryl is going to go next
Through Thursday, the hurricane is forecast to move mostly west or northwest over the Caribbean Sea. It is predicted to maintain its major hurricane status through midweek, with a Category 3 or higher intensity, before gradually weakening. Despite this, the hurricane will still be extremely dangerous, with powerful gusts, heavy rain, and dangerous waters that stretch far beyond its center over most of the Caribbean. Even if Beryl’s center doesn’t make landfall in Jamaica on Wednesday, it may pass close to the southern coast and have more severe effects on the nation. In locations with onshore winds around the immediate coast of Jamaica, the storm surge could elevate sea levels by up to three to five feet over normal tide levels, according to the Hurricane Center. Every line depicts a distinct forecast model that projects Beryl’s route for the duration of the weekend. The space shows the amount of uncertainty in Beryl’s trajectory between the lines; more space, more uncertainty. After it lands in the Yucatan, its trajectory becomes increasingly unpredictable. Every line depicts a distinct forecast model that projects Beryl’s route for the duration of the weekend. The space shows the amount of uncertainty in Beryl’s trajectory between the lines; more space, more uncertainty. After it lands in the Yucatan, its trajectory becomes increasingly unpredictable.
Large swells from the storm will persist for the next few days in the Windward and southern Leeward Islands, according to the hurricane center. Waves are predicted to hit Puerto Rico’s and Hispaniola’s southern beaches late tonight or early Tuesday. It stated that life-threatening surf and rip current conditions are predicted as a result of these swells. If Beryl can make landfall again over the weekend, it will also depend on what happens following her next landfall. Beryl might cause problems for northeastern Mexico or even the US Gulf Coast if it manages to make it across land and into the Gulf of Mexico’s bathtub-warm waters.
A historically early start to hurricane season
A second storm, Tropical Storm Chris, made landfall early on Monday off the Gulf Coast, close to Tuxpan, Mexico, indicating that this season is already off to a hectic start. A woman strolls along a street clogged with debris in Bridgetown, Barbados’ Hastings district following Hurricane Beryl. A woman strolls along a street clogged with debris in Bridgetown, Barbados’ Hastings district following Hurricane Beryl. Reuters/Nigel R. Browne. With her record-breaking activity, Beryl is bringing in a dangerous start to a hurricane season that analysts have warned will be hyperactive. This could be a preview of things to come.
In 58 years, Beryl is the first big hurricane in the Atlantic to be classified as a Category 3 or higher storm. The National Hurricane Center Director, Mike Brennan, noted that the storm’s quick intensification is quite unusual thus early in the hurricane season. Only a small number of tropical systems, especially powerful ones, have formed in the central Atlantic east of the Lesser Antilles in June, according to NOAA statistics. Not only is the storm early for this season. It is currently the third-earliest significant storm in the Atlantic Ocean. Hurricane Audrey, which became a major hurricane on June 27, eclipsed Hurricane Alma, which made landfall on June 8, 1966.