Bridgetown: Much of the southeastern Caribbean was on alert Saturday as Beryl strengthened into the first storm of the 2024 Atlantic season, which experts warned could quickly become a hurricane.
The US National Hurricane Center (NHC) said Beryl, currently in the Atlantic Ocean about 720 miles (1,160 km) east of Barbados, will become a “dangerous major storm” when it reaches the Windward Islands late Sunday. .
Barbados is under a hurricane warning, while St Lucia, St Vincent and the Grenadines and Grenada all have a hurricane watch, the NHC said in its latest advisory.
In the Barbadian capital of Bridgetown, cars line up at gas stations, and supermarkets and grocery stores are crowded with people buying food, water and supplies.
Major hurricanes are considered Category 3 or higher on the Saffir-Simpson scale, with sustained winds of at least 111 miles per hour.
According to experts, such strong storms rarely form at the beginning of the Atlantic hurricane season, which lasts from the beginning of June to the end of November.
“There have only been 5 major (Category 3+) hurricanes recorded in the Atlantic before the first week of July. Beryl will be the sixth and the earliest in the tropical Atlantic,” hurricane expert Michael Lowry tweeted earlier.
By Saturday afternoon, Beryl’s maximum sustained winds had increased to 75 kilometers per hour (120 km/h) and the storm was strong, the NHC said.
“Wind speeds on the windward side of hills and mountains are often 30 percent stronger than nearshore winds indicated in this advisory, and may be greater at some higher elevations,” the NHS said.
The Saffir-Simpson Wind Scale defines Category 1 hurricanes with sustained winds of at least 74 miles per hour, up to Category 5 hurricanes with sustained winds of 157 mph or greater.
The US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) said in late May that it expected an “exceptional” hurricane season this year with seven Category 3 storms or higher.
The agency cited warm temperatures in the Atlantic Ocean and conditions associated with the La Nina weather phenomenon in the Pacific Ocean. In recent years, as a result of climate change, extreme weather events such as hurricanes have become more frequent and destructive.
