Tropical Storm Beryl officially became Hurricane Beryl on Saturday afternoon, an unusual early-season storm that strengthened since its formation late Friday and that forecasters warned could rapidly intensify.
Hurricane Beryl, the first hurricane of the 2024 season, is expected to bring “life-threatening winds and storm surge” to the Windward Islands, southeast of Puerto Rico and north of Venezuela, as it continues moving west, the National Hurricane Center said Saturday. The winds could be up to 30% stronger across the higher elevations of the islands, forecasters said.
A hurricane warning was issued for Barbados, and several other Caribbean islands were under a hurricane watch, including St. Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, and Grenada. The islands of Martinique, Dominica and Tobago were under a tropical storm watch.
“Continued steady to rapid strengthening is forecast, and Beryl is expected to become a dangerous major hurricane before it reaches the Windward Islands,” the hurricane center said Saturday night.
Some computer weather models suggest that the storm could intensify into a major hurricane, which is a Category 3 or higher.
According to National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration records, only three storms have reached Category 3 status in the north Atlantic Ocean this early in the season: Alma in 1966, Audrey in 1957 and an unnamed storm in 1916. All made landfall on the U.S. coastline in the Gulf of Mexico: Alma near St. Marks, Florida; Audrey near Port Arthur, Texas; and the 1916 storm near Mobile, Alabama.
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