Hurricane Beryl Takes Aim at Caribbean With Jamaica in Its Path; Chris Becomes a Depression

By Rafael Olmeda, Victoria Ballard, and David Fleshler, South Florida Sun Sentinel

Hurricane Beryl, which became the season’s first major hurricane on Sunday, reaching Category 4 strength, saw its intensity tick down to 120 mph early Monday morning, making it a Category 3 storm as it approached the Caribbean.

Still, Beryl is packing “life-threatening winds and storm surge” of as much as 6 to 9 feet and 3 to 6 inches of rain across Barbados and the Windward Islands on its approach to the far eastern Caribbean early Monday, according to the National Hurricane Center.

Beryl is expected to hit the Windward Islands Monday and then continue into the eastern Caribbean.

It is forecast to maintain its major hurricane status as it sweeps into the Caribbean Sea.

Most of Jamaica, Belize, and parts of Mexico were within Beryl’s cone Monday. Its hurricane-force winds extend outward up to 35 miles from Beryl’s center and tropical-storm-force winds extend outward up to 125 miles.

A hurricane warning is in effect for Barbados, St. Lucia, St. Vincent, Tobago, the Grenadine Islands, and Grenada, while a tropical storm warning is in effect for Martinique and Trinidad. A tropical storm watch is in effect for Dominica, the Dominican Republic from Punta Palenque westward to the border with Haiti and the entire south coast of Haiti from the border of the Dominican Republic to Anse d’Hainault.

At 5 a.m. Monday, Hurricane Beryl was 140 miles south-southeast of Barbados and 125 miles east-southeast of Grenada, moving west at 20 mph.

“Development this far east in late June is unusual,” the forecasters at the hurricane center said. “In fact, there have only been a few storms in history that have formed over the central or eastern tropical Atlantic this early in the year.”

“B​eryl is the easternmost hurricane and ‘major hurricane’ to form in the tropical Atlantic during the month of June,” The Weather Channel reported.

Beryl is expected to remain a significant hurricane as it moves through the eastern Caribbean and may weaken some by midweek, but will remain a hurricane, forecasters said Monday.

It is not expected to affect South Florida.

Meanwhile, Tropical Storm Chris, which formed hours earlier, was downgraded to a tropical depression by 8 a.m. Monday and it moved inland near Tuxpan, Mexico. Tropical Depression Chris is expected to bring heavy rain to eastern Mexico before dissipating later today.

Forecasters also said that a tropical wave, located about 1,000 miles east of the Winward Islands in the Atlantic on Monday, could become a tropical depression by midweek as it moves toward the eastern and central Caribbean.

It has a 30% chance of developing in the next two days and a 60% chance in the next seven days.

It is expected to move west at 15 to 20 mph, forecasters said.

The next storm to form would be Debby.

The western Gulf of Mexico generated the 2024 season’s first tropical storm last week. Dubbed Alberto, the system made landfall in Mexico 250 miles south of the U.S. border but sent storm surges and floods to spots 500 miles away in Louisiana.

The 2024 hurricane season, which officially began June 1, is expected to be extremely active.

In its annual May outlook, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said that 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 hurricanes. An average year has 14 named storms and seven hurricanes.

In addition, NOAA has forecast four to seven major hurricanes for 2024, meaning those that are Category 3 or above.

Experts at Colorado State University stated in their 2024 forecast that the U.S. East Coast, including Florida, had a 34% chance of a major hurricane making landfall this year. The average from 1880-2020 was 21%.

Forecasters say that the record-warm water temperatures that now cover much of the Atlantic Ocean will continue into peak hurricane season from August to October. That warm water fuels hurricanes. By early June, the tropical Atlantic was already as hot as it usually is in mid-August — peak hurricane season.

Hurricane season officially ends Nov. 30.

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