The Caribbean faces “extremely dangerous” hurricane Beryl

A vast area of ​​the Caribbean is on alert this Sunday, after Beryl strengthened into the first hurricane of the 2024 Atlantic season, with warnings from meteorologists that it will become an “extremely dangerous” Category 4 storm. .

The US National Hurricane Center (NHC) said Beryl was moving about 750 kilometers (470 miles) east of Barbados in the Atlantic Ocean and was expected to bring “deadly winds and storm surge” when it reaches the Windward Islands early on Monday.

The NHC warned that the storm is “strengthening” and predicted that it will become an “extremely dangerous Category 4 hurricane” upon reaching Caribbean communities.

Barbados, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines and Grenada are on hurricane alert, while Martinique, Tobago and Dominica are on tropical storm warning, the NHC detailed in its latest advisory.

In Bridgetown, the capital of Barbados, cars lined up at gas stations, while supermarkets and grocery stores were packed with buyers of food, water and other supplies.

A major hurricane is considered a Category 3 or higher on the Saffir-Simpson scale, with winds of at least 179 km per hour. A Category 4 storm has sustained winds of at least 209 km per hour.

According to experts, such a powerful storm at the beginning of the hurricane season, which runs from early June to late November in the Atlantic, is extremely rare.

“There have only been five major hurricanes (Category 3+) recorded in the Atlantic before the first week of July. Beryl would be the sixth and the earliest to appear in this end of the tropical Atlantic,” hurricane expert Michael Lowry wrote on social media.

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