Hurricane Beryl, rare for this time of the year, has already set a few records

Beryl Hurricane 2024: HurricaneBeryl intensified into a Category 4 storm and moved towards the southeast Caribbean on Sunday (Jun 30). People are scrambling to make preparations before the hurricane makes landfall. Several cricket fans are also stuck in Barbados, and authorities are making sure that they safely weather the storm as most of them have "never gone through a hurricane or a storm before.” Hurricane Beryl is packing maximum sustained winds of 130 mph and will remain a Category 4 storm by the time it reaches populated islands in the southeast Caribbean early Monday (Jul 1).

Hurricane Beryl 2024 Updates

The Windward Islands, a group of islands including Martinique, Saint Lucia,Grenada, and more, is at the biggest risk from Beryl. The US National Hurricane Center (NHC) said that Beryl threatens to bring "potentially catastrophic hurricane-force winds, a life-threatening storm surge, and damaging waves" to the Windward Islands, with St. Vincent and the Grenadines, and Grenada, finding itself at the core of the storm.

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“A life-threatening storm surge will raise water levels by as much as 6 to 9 feet above normal tide levels in areas of onshore flow near where the eye makes landfall in the hurricane warning area,” the National Hurricane Center said, adding that the surge could bring large and destructive waves near the coast.

Hurricane Beryl: Records set

Hurricane Beryl wasthe first ever Category 4 storm recorded in June. Typically, the first hurricane of the season arrives around August 11. It is also the earliest Category 4 hurricane to be recorded in the Atlantic Ocean.

Beryl is also the Atlantic Ocean’s third-earliest major hurricane - defined as Category 3 or higher, in 58 years. Hurricane Alma is the earliest which became a major hurricane on June 8, 1996. Hurricane Audrey on June 27, 1957, is second.

Beryl has also already brokena record set in 1933. It wasthe easternmost hurricane to form in the Tropical Atlantic in June as normally, hurricanes in the centraland eastern Atlanticform around August.

Why do we have a major hurricane in June?

Above-normal water temperatures in the Atlantic basin are to blame, as per the director of the hurricane centre, Mike Brennan. He told CNN, “Beryl has found an environment with very warm ocean waters for this time of year."

Besides, the change from El Niño season to La Niña season had led to the absence of wind shear.

Tropical storms and hurricanes thrive in warmer waters, and so this year are developing faster than usual. Brennan added, that these storms will be more powerful and more destructive.