Beryl is the oldest Category 5 hurricane in history.

Hurricane Beryl has gained a lot of strength in the past few hours and has reached Category 5, the maximum on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale. The monster storm is working in the Caribbean, passing through several islands with destructive winds and huge waves at sea.

Beryl became the first Category 5 hurricane ever recorded in the Atlantic since NOAA records began, and is considered potentially catastrophic with maximum sustained winds of 160 mph (260 km/h), according to the US National Hurricane Center (NHC).

Before Beryl, the first Category 5 hurricane in the Atlantic was Emily, which reached the maximum hurricane scale at 9 p.m. (Brasilia time) on July 16, 2005, a year that saw an overly active Atlantic season.

Earlier, the island of Carriacou in Grenada was directly hit by “an extremely dangerous eyewall,” the National Hurricane Center said. Nearby islands like St. Vincent and the Grenadines also saw “catastrophic winds and potentially deadly storm surge,” the agency said.

“Within half an hour, Carriacou was destroyed,” Grenada’s Prime Minister Deacon Mitchell told a news conference. Heavy rains and strong winds were recorded in St. George’s, Grenada, according to videos obtained by AFP. “Don’t go anywhere until you get the green light,” Barbados’ Public Affairs Minister Wilfred Abrahams advised.

In Bridgetown, cars lined up at gas stations throughout the weekend, while supermarkets and grocery stores were filled with people looking for food, water and other supplies.

Authorities in Barbados, the easternmost island in the Windward Islands (an archipelago in the Lesser Antilles), said the island was battered by strong winds and heavy rains, but avoided disaster and reported no injuries.

St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines and Grenada are under a hurricane warning, and a tropical storm warning is in effect for Martinique, Dominica and Trinidad. In the two islands that make up Trinidad and Tobago, tropical storm and hurricane warnings ended simultaneously, respectively, according to the National Hurricane Center.

In Tobago, the smaller of the two islands, a state of emergency has been declared and schools are closed “until further notice,” according to the island’s prime minister, Farley Augustine. A meeting in Grenada of the Caribbean regional bloc Caricom this week has been postponed because of the hurricane.

Residents watch the storm surge as Hurricane Beryl passes through Oistins, near Bridgetown, Barbados. | Chandan Khanna/AFP/Metsol Meteorology

Such a powerful storm at the start of the Atlantic hurricane season, which runs from early June to late November, is highly unusual, experts say. “Only five major hurricanes (Category 3 or greater) have been recorded in the Atlantic before the first week of July,” wrote expert Michael Lowry.

One reason Beryl intensified to Category 5 two weeks earlier than any other Category 5 system in history is because of the extremely high levels of latent heat in the ocean, with levels today in the Caribbean typically seen in September, at the height of hurricane season. Not at the beginning like now.

According to the planned path, Beryl will advance south of Jamaica and then into the Mexican state of Quintana Roo, home to the resorts of Cancun and the Riviera Maya. “We are waiting for the Civil Protection, the Ministry of Defense and the Navy (…) to monitor the entire path,” Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said in brief remarks to the press in Cancun.

NHC/NOAA

Mexican authorities issued another warning as Tropical Storm Chris formed Sunday evening in the Gulf of Mexico, the third system of the Atlantic season. Tropical Storm Alberto, the first of the season in the region, left at least five dead when it passed through northern Mexico 10 days ago.

For its part, the Martinique meteorological services have already forecast very volatile sea conditions “particularly on Monday”. Waves are expected to reach 5 metres in the Sainte-Luce Channel, south of the French island.

Météo France expects the 2024 hurricane season to be “one of the most intense” in the region. The US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) also forecast an exceptional season in late May, with the possibility of four to seven Category 3 or higher hurricanes.

There has been a very active hurricane season this year with violent storms earlier than usual for several months as the Atlantic Ocean warms with record sea temperatures and La Niña trends later in the year favoring Atlantic hurricanes.

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