Category 4 Hurricane Beryl hits Barbados, putting Jamaica in its path; Tropical Storm Chris is forming near Mexico

Hurricane Beryl became the first major hurricane of the season on Sunday, reaching Category 4 strength as it approached the Caribbean Sea with winds exceeding 130 mph, meteorologists said. Late Sunday, the season saw the third storm to be named. .

Beryl has strengthened rapidly since its formation, and will likely bring “life-threatening winds and storm surge” as it approaches the far eastern Caribbean Sea early Monday, according to the National Hurricane Center.

A tornado-hunting plane scanned the tornado on Sunday, recording maximum sustained winds of at least 130 mph with higher gusts. The hurricane is expected to maintain its status as a major hurricane as it sweeps through the Caribbean Sea.

Jamaica, Belize and parts of Mexico were within range of Beryl’s cone on Sunday.

The forecast for Hurricane Beryl includes a “life-threatening storm surge” of 6 to 9 feet and 3 to 6 inches of rain across Barbados and the Windward Islands from Sunday through Monday, increasing the potential for flash flooding, according to the hurricane center.

At 11 p.m. Sunday, Hurricane Beryl was 150 miles southeast of Barbados and moving west at 20 mph.

Hurricane winds extend outward up to 30 miles from Beryl’s center and tropical storm force winds extend outward up to 115 miles.

A hurricane warning is in effect for Barbados, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and Tobago, the Grenadines and Grenada, while a tropical storm warning is in effect for Martinique. A tropical storm watch is in effect for Dominica, Trinidad and the Dominican Republic from Punta Palenque west to the border with Haiti and the entire southern coast of Haiti from the Dominican Republic border to Anse Daigneault.

“The development over this eastern Atlantic Ocean in late June is unusual,” said meteorologists at the Hurricane Center. “In fact, only a handful of storms have formed over the central or eastern tropical Atlantic Ocean this early in the year in history.”

Beryl is expected to remain a major hurricane for the next five days, forecasters said Sunday.

Beryl is not expected to affect South Florida.

Meanwhile, Tropical Storm Chris formed 105 miles southeast of Tuxpan, Mexico, Sunday at 11 p.m. It is expected to be short-lived as it heads inland.

Meteorologists also said Sunday that a tropical wave in the eastern Atlantic Ocean off Africa could become a tropical depression by midweek as it moves toward the eastern and central Caribbean.