Beryl became a hurricane

According to the National Hurricane Center (NHC) in Miami, “Maximum sustained winds are now near 100 km/h with sustained sustained gusts.”

A hurricane warning is in effect for Barbados, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines and the islands of Grenada, while a tropical storm warning is in effect for Martinique, Dominica and Tobago.

A major hurricane that Beryl can develop is equivalent to a Category 3 or higher hurricane with sustained winds of 178 km/h. According to experts, this type of event this early in hurricane season — which runs from early June to late November in the United States — is extremely rare.

Météo France (French meteorological services) also predicted that the cyclone would pass between the “Lesser Antilles, Tobago, the southern island of Martinique, and the northern island” between Monday and Tuesday.

“From Sunday night, above all, during the day on Monday, the sea will be very turbulent,” French government services in Martinique predicted.

Waves of up to five meters are expected in the Saint Lucia Channel south of the French island.

Beryl is the second tropical event to be named in the Atlantic basin since early June.

Météo France predicts the 2024 hurricane season will be “one of the most intense”. The United States National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is predicting an unusual season for late May, expecting the possibility of four to seven category three hurricanes or more.

These forecasts are linked, in particular, to the expected development of the La Niña weather event and extremely high temperatures in the Atlantic Ocean, according to NOAA.

The opposite of El-Nino, the La Niña event corresponds to an anomalous cooling of the surface waters of the central and eastern Pacific Ocean, commonly known as the “pool of cold water” in that ocean. Portuguese Institute of Ocean and Atmosphere.

Global warming is making extreme weather events like hurricanes more frequent and catastrophic.