Hurricane Beryl, which became the first major hurricane of the season on Sunday, reaching Category 4 strength, saw its intensity drop to 120 mph early Monday morning, making it a Category 3 storm as it approached the Caribbean.
However, Beryl is packing “life-threatening winds and storm surges” of up to 6 to 9 feet and 3 to 6 inches of rain across Barbados and the Windward Islands as it approaches the far eastern Caribbean Sea early Monday, according to the National Hurricane Center.
It is expected to maintain its status as a major hurricane as it sweeps through the Caribbean Sea.
Jamaica, Belize and parts of Mexico were inside the Beryl Cone on Sunday.
At 2 a.m. Monday, Hurricane Beryl was 110 miles southeast of Barbados and 165 miles east-southeast of Grenada, moving west at 20 mph.
Hurricane winds extend outward up to 30 miles from Beryl’s center and tropical storm force winds extend outward up to 115 miles.
A hurricane warning is in effect for Barbados, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and Tobago, the Grenadines and Grenada, while a tropical storm warning is in effect for Martinique. A tropical storm warning is also in effect for Dominica, Trinidad and the Dominican Republic from Punta Palenque west to the border with Haiti and the entire southern coast of Haiti from the Dominican Republic border to Anse de Hainaut.
“The development this far east in late June is unusual,” forecasters at the hurricane center said. “In fact, there have only been a handful of storms in history that have formed over the central or eastern tropical Atlantic this early in the year.”
Beryl is expected to remain a major hurricane over the next five days, forecasters said Sunday, though it is not expected to impact South Florida.
Meanwhile, Tropical Storm Chris was 75 miles southeast of Tuxpan, Mexico, Monday at 2 a.m. and had begun moving inland.
Meteorologists also said that a tropical wave in the eastern Atlantic Ocean off Africa could turn into a tropical depression by mid-week as it moves toward the eastern and central Caribbean Sea.
It has a 40% chance of developing in the next two days and a 70% chance in the next seven days.
It is expected to move west at 15 to 20 mph, forecasters said.
The next storm to form will be Debbie.
The western Gulf of Mexico produced its first tropical storm of the 2024 season last week. The system, named Alberto, made landfall in Mexico about 250 miles south of the U.S. border, but brought storm surge and flooding to locations as far as 500 miles away in Louisiana.
The 2024 hurricane season, which officially began on June 1, is expected to be very active.
In its annual forecast for May, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said 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 tornadoes. The average year is 14 named storms and seven hurricanes.
Additionally, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has projected four to seven major hurricanes in 2024, meaning those that are Category 3 or higher.
Experts from Colorado State University stated in their forecasts for 2024 that the chances of a major hurricane making landfall on the East Coast of the United States, including Florida, are 34% this year. The average from 1880 to 2020 was 21%.
Forecasters say the record-breaking warm water temperatures now covering much of the Atlantic will continue through the peak of the August-October hurricane season. Warm water fuels hurricanes. By early June, the tropical Atlantic was already as warm as it is for mid-August, the peak of hurricane season.
Hurricane season officially ends on November 30.
“Internet practitioner. Social media maven. Certified zombieaholic. Lifelong communicator.”