Caribbean Prepares As Hurricane Beryl Strengthens To Extremely Dangerous Category 4 Storm

(Photo : Getty Images/CHANDAN KHANNA/AFP)

As it got near the Windward Islands on Sunday, Beryl, which was the first hurricane in the 2024 season, actually evolved into quite a hazardous Category 4 hurricane, producing wind blasts in excess of 130 miles per hour.

Hurricane Alert Raised

The center of the hurricane is most likely to hit Grenada, St. Vincent, or the Grenadines starting early Monday.

As it makes its way through the Windward Islands on Monday and into the Caribbean early this week, Beryl is predicted to maintain her hurricane strength.

The National Hurricane Center said that in areas of onshore flow close to where the eye makes landfall in the hurricane warning area, a potentially fatal storm surge could raise water levels by up to 6 to 9 feet above normal tide levels. The storm surge could also bring large, destructive waves close to the coast.

Beryl stands as the first and only Category 4 hurricane to ever be registered in the Atlantic Ocean during the month of June. Beryl has the potential to be the strongest storm to hit the region since Hurricane Ivan in 2004.

The hurricane is forecast to deposit three to six inches of rain on Barbados and the Windward Islands until Monday, according to the weather center.

A red-level warning, which is the ultimate public alert level, was released for Tobago by the Trinidad and Tobago Meteorological Service on Sunday night. The warning gives the island's citizens instructions to act right away to safeguard their property, lives, and means of subsistence.

The government of the Dominican Republic has issued a tropical storm watch that extends westward from Punta Palenque to the border with Haiti.

A tropical storm watch has also been issued for the whole south coast of Haiti, extending from the Dominican Republic border to Anse-d'Hainault. Martinique is still under a tropical storm watch, and Dominica and Trinidad are under a tropical storm warning.

As Beryl moves closer, some airports in Barbados, Grenada, and Saint Lucia will close on Sunday night.

The Maurice Bishop International Airport in Grenada also closes and is scheduled to reopen at 10 a.m. on Tuesday. The official mentioned that the hours could change based on the circumstances.

The Grantley Adams International Airport in Barbados is also said to have been closed until further notice.

Unusual Intensification

In the Atlantic, Hurricane Beryl became the first major storm to reach the power of a Category 3 storm or higher in 58 years.

Experts noted that the storm's quick intensification is quite unusual this early in the hurricane season. Only a small number of tropical systems, especially powerful ones, formed in the central Atlantic east of the Lesser Antilles in June, based on NOAA data.

Beryl is already the third-earliest significant storm in the Atlantic Ocean for this hurricane season. The first was Hurricane Alma on June 8, 1966, and the second was Hurricane Audrey on June 27, 1957.

By breaking the previous mark set in 1933, the storm has already broken the record for the easternmost hurricane to form in the Tropical Atlantic in June.

August is often a more active month in the middle and eastern Atlantic, partly due to the ocean's ability to warm and support emerging systems.