By Judson Jones and Aimee Ortiz
Hurricane Beryl made landfall on Carriacou Island, north of Grenada, on Monday morning as an “extremely dangerous” Category 4 hurricane and was expected to bring life-threatening winds and storm surges to islands across the Caribbean.
Here are key things to know about the storm.
— Barbados largely avoided the worst effects of Beryl, officials there said Monday morning. The storm was expected to continue across the Windward Islands before traversing the central Caribbean Sea through the middle of the week.
— The storm surge accompanying Beryl is expected to raise water levels by up to 9 feet near where it makes landfall. Flash flooding is also a concern as the storm brings 3 to 6 inches of rain.
— By the weekend, the storm could make it into the Gulf of Mexico, but it is “too soon” to discuss what happens if and when it does, forecasters said Monday morning.
When Beryl developed into a Category 4 hurricane Sunday, it was the earliest in a season that a storm had reached such strength. The earliest Category 4 hurricane on record had been Hurricane Dennis on July 8, 2005.
Beryl, the first hurricane of the 2024 season, was downgraded slightly early Monday but strengthened again to a Category 4 storm, with maximum sustained winds near 150 mph, according to the National Hurricane Center, which cited an observer. The center said in an advisory that life-threatening winds and storm surges were expected within hours in the Windward Islands, southeast of Puerto Rico and north of Venezuela.
A hurricane warning was in effect for Barbados, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Grenada, and the island of Tobago. Martinique, Trinidad and St. Lucia were under a tropical storm warning, while parts of Haiti and the Dominican Republic were under a tropical storm watch.
Officials in Barbados said Monday morning that the island had been spared from the worst of the hurricane, as it passed close to the southern tip of the country.
Hurricanes in the Atlantic Ocean are now twice as likely to grow from a weak storm into a major Category 3 hurricane or higher within just 24 hours, according to a study published last year.
Devastating winds from Beryl will occur where the eye wall, the area that surrounds the eye of a hurricane, scrapes across the islands. Across the higher elevations of the hills and mountains of the islands, the winds might be even stronger.
Beryl is the third-earliest major hurricane to form in the Atlantic, according to Philip Klotzbach, an expert in seasonal hurricane forecasts at Colorado State University. The only hurricanes to have formed earlier in a calendar year were Alma on June 8, 1966, and Audrey on June 27, 1957. Both made landfall on the U.S. coastline in the Gulf of Mexico: Alma near St. Marks, Florida, and Audrey near Port Arthur, Texas.
Beryl became a tropical storm late Friday when its sustained winds reached 39 mph. At 74 mph, a storm becomes a hurricane
Countries prepare for Beryl.
As officials across the Caribbean braced for the storm to arrive, Barbados appeared to have avoided the worst effects of Beryl.
By 5 a.m. Monday, sustained wind speeds of over 45 mph were recorded at the Grantley Adams International Airport in the southern parish of Christ Church, which has been taking the brunt of Beryl. Gusts up to 60 mph, accompanied by bouts of driving rain were reported throughout the southern half of the island.
There were no overnight reports of injuries, Wilfred Abrahams, minister of home affairs and information, said during a broadcast from the emergency operations center in a daybreak broadcast.
“We dodged a bullet,” he said. “Or we’re in the process of dodging a bullet, but there is still a lot of weather to come.”
In Grenada on Monday, Prime Minister Dickon Mitchell urged people to stay indoors.
“With God’s blessing, we hope the damage will be minimal,” he said. “It is absolutely critical that we remain indoors, that we hunker down, that we find the safest places within our homes, within the shelters, within wherever you are to try and remain safe,” he said.
Ralph Gonsalves, prime minister of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, on Sunday urged residents to take the storm seriously, saying that many buildings could lose their roofs.
In St. Lucia, Prime Minister Philip J. Pierre announced a countrywide shutdown at 8:30 p.m. Sunday, with schools and businesses remaining closed Monday.
After Beryl passes through the eastern Caribbean Islands on Monday, it is expected to continue pushing west over the Central Caribbean, skirting just south of Jamaica in the middle of the week and into the Yucatan Peninsula by the weekend. There is some indication that the hurricane may weaken over the central Caribbean.
This hurricane season is expected to be busy.
Forecasters have warned that the 2024 Atlantic hurricane season could be much more active than usual.
In late May, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration predicted 17 to 25 named storms this year, an “above-normal” number and a prediction in line with more than a dozen forecasts earlier in the year from experts at universities, private companies and government agencies. Hurricane seasons produce an average of 14 named storms.
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