Hurricane Beryl hits islands as life-threatening Category 4 storm in dangerous early start to season

CNN
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Hurricane Beryl strengthened again Monday morning to a Category 4 as it slammed into the Windward Islands, putting many island communities at risk with life-threatening storm surge, violent winds and flash flooding.

Barbados, Grenada and Trinidad and Tobago were just a few places feeling Beryl’s wrath early Monday. St. Vincent and the Grenadines and Grenada are most at risk of being hit by the storm’s eye. Actual landfall — with the eye passing over the coast — may not occur, but even then, Beryl would deliver a devastating blow to the nearest islands.

Hurricane Beryl is the strongest storm to hit the Windward Islands since Hurricane Ivan in September 2004.

Beryl’s arrival marks an exceptionally early — and potentially devastating — start to the Atlantic hurricane season. On Sunday, it became the first ever Category 4 hurricane in the Atlantic and the only Category 4 in June. Bathtub – warm ocean water The events that led to Beryl’s alarming strengthening are a clear indication that this hurricane season will be far from normal in light of global warming caused by fossil fuel pollution.

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The storm briefly weakened to Category 3 early Monday as it went through an eyewall replacement cycle, a process in which even the most powerful hurricanes can shed their eyewall — the ring of more intense winds surrounding a hurricane’s calm eye — as they build a larger eye. The hurricane weakens during this process but eventually emerges as a more powerful storm.

Islanders were scrambling to make final emergency preparations Sunday night even as tropical storm winds approached.. Local officials warned of potentially catastrophic impacts, including damage to homes, widespread power outages and threats to the safety of residents.

“I want everyone in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines to take this issue seriously,” Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves said. “There are some people who hope for the best, and we all have to do that, but we all have to prepare for the worst.”

Grantley Adams International Airport in Barbados reported sustained winds of 40 to 45 mph with a gust of about 70 mph Monday morning.

• Beryl is a dangerous hurricane: The storm is located about 70 miles east of Grenada, packing winds of 130 mph and moving west at 20 mph. Beryl’s hurricane-force winds extend out to 35 miles from the center while tropical storm-force winds extend out to about 125 miles.

• Life-threatening storms and floods: National Hurricane Center to caution “Life-threatening storm surge will raise water levels by 6 to 9 feet above normal tide levels” if Beryl makes landfall. Towering waves could also create life-threatening waves and rip currents that threaten small vessels and fishermen. Flash flooding is also a concern in parts of the Windward Islands and Barbados, where 3 to 6 inches of rain are expected through Monday — with up to 10 inches possible in a few locations, especially in the Grenadines and Grenada. Barbados Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley has advised citizens to be “extremely vigilant.”

• Hurricane warnings: St. Lucia, Martinique, and Trinidad. Tropical Storm Warnings are in effect for the southern coast of the Dominican Republic from Punta Palenque west to the border with Haiti, and the southern coast of Haiti from the border with the Dominican Republic to Anse de Haino.

• Evacuation of hundreds: More than 400 people were housed in hurricane shelters across Barbados on Sunday evening, Ramona Archer-Bradshaw, the country’s head of shelters, told CNN affiliate CBC News. She added: “I’m happy that people are using shelters, and if they don’t feel comfortable in their homes, it’s better to go to a shelter.”

• State of emergency in Grenada: Grenada’s Governor General Cécile LaGrenade declared a state of emergency that will remain in effect from Sunday night until Tuesday morning. All businesses will have to close except police forces, hospitals, prisons, landfills and ports.

• Airports closed: Airports in Barbados, Grenada and Saint Lucia were closed on Sunday evening as the hurricane approached. An airport spokesman said Grenada’s Maurice Bishop International Airport was expected to reopen on Tuesday morning. Grantley Adams International Airport in Barbados, Hewanorra International Airport and George Charles Airport in Saint Lucia have also suspended operations.

• Cricket World Cup fans stuck: Barbados is still hosting cricket fans from around the world who have travelled to the island for the T20 World Cup, some of whom will not be able to evacuate before Beryl arrives. “Our visitors are here with us,” said Barbados Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley. “Some of them won’t be leaving until Monday and Tuesday, some of them have never been through a hurricane or a storm.” She appealed to residents to support the visitors if they can.

Beryl heralds an alarming start to a hurricane season that forecasters have warned will be hyperactive — and Beryl’s record-breaking activity may be a sign of what’s to come.

This season is already off to a busy start as a second storm — Tropical Storm Chris — made landfall near Tuxpan, Mexico off the Gulf Coast early Monday.

Beryl is the oldest major hurricane — defined as a Category 3 or higher — in the Atlantic Ocean in 58 years. The storm’s rapid intensification is extremely unusual this early in the hurricane season, according to National Hurricane Center Director Mike Brennan. It’s rare for tropical systems to form in the central Atlantic east of the Lesser Antilles in June, especially strong ones, with only a handful of tropical systems having done so. According to NOAA records.

The storm isn’t just early for the season. It is now the third oldest major hurricane in the Atlantic. The first was Hurricane Alma on June 8, 1966, followed by Hurricane Audrey, which reached major hurricane status on June 27, 1957.

Hurricane Beryl also set the record for the easternmost hurricane to form in the tropical Atlantic in June, beating the previous record set in 1933.

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The central and eastern Atlantic typically become more active in August, in part because ocean temperatures have time to warm and feed developing systems.

But this year the Atlantic basin has seen above-normal water temperatures and a lack of wind shear due to the transition from El Niño to La Niña, both of which fuel tropical development.

“Beryl found an environment with very warm ocean waters for this time of year,” Brennan said.

These systems forming early in the summer in this part of the Atlantic are a sign of the upcoming active hurricane season, according to Search from Phil Klotzbach, a hurricane expert and research scientist at Colorado State University. Typically, ocean temperatures are not warm enough in June and July to help tropical systems thrive.

National Weather Service Meteorologists predict This season is expected to see between 17 and 25 named storms, 13 of which will become hurricanes.

“This is well above average,” Brennan noted.

CNN’s Monica Jarrett, Jane Norman, Michael Rios, Marlon Sorto, Sandy Sidhu, Melissa Alonso, Isaac Yee, Eric Zirkle, Mary Gilbert and Brandon Miller contributed to this report.