On June 28th, the National Hurricane Center in the United States announced that Hurricane Beryl is rapidly strengthening and is expected to become a major hurricane next week, bringing life-threatening strong winds and storm surge to the Caribbean region.
Beryl is currently heading towards the Windward Islands, including Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Grenada, and Martinique. As of Saturday evening, Beryl was located about 720 miles east-southeast of Barbados, with maximum sustained winds of 75 miles per hour, moving westward at 22 miles per hour.
According to the latest update from the National Hurricane Center on Saturday evening, they stated, “A relatively fast west to west-northwest motion is expected during the next several days.” “Based on the forecast track, the center of Beryl is expected to pass through the Windward Islands on Sunday night and Monday.”
Barbados has already issued a hurricane warning, while Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, and Grenada have issued hurricane watches. These areas could experience hurricane conditions on Sunday night or early Monday morning. Martinique, Dominica, and Tobago have issued tropical storm watches, with the possibility of storms on Monday morning.
The Hurricane Center warns that as Beryl’s eyewall passes over parts of the Windward Islands, it could cause devastating wind damage.
In the hurricane warning area, life-threatening storm surges could raise water levels by 5 to 7 feet above normal tide levels, bringing destructive waves to the coast.
From Sunday to Monday, Barbados and the Windward Islands could see 3 to 6 inches of rainfall, leading to potential flooding in some areas. North of Beryl, southeastern Puerto Rico could experience 1 to 4 inches of rainfall from Monday night to Tuesday.
The Hurricane Center also mentioned that more alerts and warnings may be issued for Puerto Rico later on Saturday.
Phil Klotzbach, a meteorologist and research scientist at Colorado State University, stated on Saturday that Beryl has become the strongest storm to form in the eastern Atlantic east of the Windward Islands in June.
Klotzbach mentioned on X that only two hurricanes before August have been recorded to pass within 100 miles of Barbados since 1851: Emily in 2005 and Elsa in 2021.