Hurricane Beryl Threatens the Caribbean as a Category 3 Storm

Hurricane Beryl was moving west through the Atlantic Ocean as a Category 3 storm early Monday, as people on islands across the Caribbean braced for life-threatening winds and storm surges later in the day.

Here are key things to know about the storm.

• Swells created by Beryl are expected to reach the Windward and southern Leeward Islands over the next few days, forecasters said, and are likely to cause life-threatening surf and rip current conditions.

• The storm is expected to cross the Windward Islands on Monday morning before traversing the central Caribbean Sea through the middle of the week.

• Three to six inches of rain, hurricane-force winds and dangerous storm surge are possible in the eastern Caribbean Islands, including Barbados, and St. Vincent and the Grenadines through Monday.

When Beryl developed into a Category 4 hurricane on Sunday, it was the earliest in a season that a storm had reached such strength. The earliest Category 4 hurricane on record had been Hurricane Dennis on July 8, 2005.

Beryl, the first hurricane of the 2024 season, was downgraded slightly early Monday but its 120 mile-per-hour sustained winds still threatened to cause significant damage over the next few days. The National Hurricane Center said in an advisory that life-threatening winds and storm surges were expected within hours in the Windward Islands, southeast of Puerto Rico and north of Venezuela.

As dawn approached, a hurricane warning was in effect for Barbados, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Grenada and the island of Tobago. Martinique and Trinidad were under a tropical storm warning, while Dominica and parts of Haiti and the Dominican Republic were under a tropical storm watch.

Hurricanes in the Atlantic Ocean are now twice as likely to grow from a weak storm into a major Category 3 or higher hurricane within just 24 hours, according to a study published last year.

Devastating winds from Beryl will occur where the eye wall, the area that surrounds the eye of a hurricane, scrapes across the islands. Across the higher elevations of the hills and mountains of the islands, the winds might be even stronger.

Beryl is the third earliest major hurricane to ever form in the Atlantic, according to Philip Klotzbach, an expert in seasonal hurricane forecasts at Colorado State University. The only hurricanes to have formed earlier in a calendar year were Alma on June 8, 1966, and Audrey on June 27, 1957.

Both made landfall on the U.S. coastline in the Gulf of Mexico: Alma near St. Marks, Fla., and Audrey near Port Arthur, Texas.

Beryl became a tropical storm late on Friday when its sustained winds reached 39 miles per hour. At 74 m.p.h., a storm becomes a hurricane.

Countries prepare for Beryl.

Prime Minister Mia Mottley of Barbados addressed the nation on Sunday night to provide an update on Beryl. She said the hurricane was expected to pass around 80 miles south of the island, bringing strong tropical storm winds of 40 to 60 m.p.h. and the possibility of gusts reaching hurricane force.

She noted that shelters across the country were open and preparing for those seeking refuge from the storm. “A couple hundred” people had already arrived at the 33 official shelters islandwide, she said.

Prime Minister Dickon Mitchell of Grenada, said that the country would be under a state of emergency starting at 7 p.m. on Sunday.

Except for the police and essential workers, “everyone is expected to be in their homes or in a shelter,” he said.

In a national address on Sunday, Ralph Gonsalves, the prime minister of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, urged residents to take the storm seriously, saying that many buildings could lose their roofs.

The prime minister ordered that, beginning at 7 p.m. on Sunday, people remain where they are. Emergency shelters were set to open at 6 p.m. on Sunday.

In St. Lucia, Prime Minister Philip J. Pierre announced a countrywide shutdown at 8:30 p.m. on Sunday, with schools and businesses remaining closed on Monday.

This hurricane season is expected to be busy.

Forecasters have warned that the 2024 Atlantic hurricane season could be much more active than usual.

In late May, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration predicted 17 to 25 named storms this year, an “above-normal” number and a prediction in line with more than a dozen forecasts earlier in the year from experts at universities, private companies and government agencies.

Hurricane seasons produce 14 named storms, on average.

The seasonal hurricane outlooks were notably aggressive because forecasters looking at the start of the season saw a combination of circumstances that didn’t exist in records dating back to the mid-1800s: record warm water temperatures in the Atlantic Ocean and the potential formation of the weather pattern known as La Niña.

When it is strong, La Niña typically provides a calm environment in the Atlantic. This allows storms to develop more easily and to strengthen without interference from wind patterns that might otherwise keep them from organizing.

Johnny Diaz, John Yoon, John Keefe, Mike Ives, Kenton X. Chance, Julius Gittens, Sharefil Gaillard, Linda Straker and Yan Zhuang contributed reporting.