The 2024 hurricane season, which officially began June 1, is expected to be extremely active.
In its annual May outlook, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said that the
Hurricane Beryl continued to rapidly intensify on Tuesday morning, reaching a powerful Category 5 hurricane with maximum sustained winds of 160 mph, the National Hurricane Center said.
“Life-threatening” winds and potentially 5 to 8 feet of storm surge are forecast to strike Jamaica on Wednesday, despite some potential weakening during the day Tuesday. It will likely remain a major hurricane as it takes a track over or just south of Jamaica.
Beryl is forecast to bring 4 to 8 inches to Jamaica on Wednesday, with up to 1 foot in some areas.
Haiti and the Dominican Republic are not in the direct path of Beryl, but is close enough to bring a potential storm surge of 2 to 4 feet along the southern coasts, the hurricane center said. Tropical storm conditions are forecast to arrive in Haiti and the Dominican Republic on Tuesday, while the Cayman Islands will experience hurricane conditions.
Southern areas of Haiti and the Dominican Republic will be affected by Beryl’s outer bands Tuesday into Wednesday, with 2 to 6 inches of rain possible.
Over the weekend, Beryl became the strongest June hurricane on record, with maximum sustained winds of 140 mph. It was the first Category 4 storm to occur in June and the earliest Category 4 on record in the Atlantic Basin. On Sunday, Beryl rapidly intensified from a tropical storm to a major hurricane in just 42 hours.
Beryl made landfall Monday in the Grenadine Islands north of Grenada as a powerful Category 4 storm with sustained winds of 155 mph, just shy of the minimum Category 5 threshold of 157 mph.
As of 11 a.m. Tuesday, Beryl was about 235 miles southeast of Isla Beata in the Dominican Republic and 555 miles east-southeast of Kingston, Jamaica. The hurricane is traveling west-northwest at 22 mph.
Hurricane-force winds extend outward up to 40 miles from the center and tropical-storm-force winds extend outward up to 175 miles.
All of Jamaica and parts of Mexico and Belize were within Beryl’s cone Tuesday.
Grand Cayman, Little Cayman and Cayman Brac were under a hurricane watch Tuesday.
A tropical storm warning is in effect for the Dominican Republic from Punta Palenque west to the border with Haiti. A hurricane watch is now in effect for the south coast of Haiti from the border with the Dominican Republic to Anse d’Hainault.
Beryl is not expected to affect South Florida.
It should reach Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula by Friday. Once the storm crosses the Yucatan and is over water once again, it will be weaker, but its potential path broadens, and could include Southern Texas.
Related Articles
Hurricane Beryl strengthens into a Category 4 storm as it nears the southeast Caribbean
The West is warming and drying so fast that a crucial drought-monitoring tool can’t keep up, study says
Source:: The Mercury News – Entertainment
