Hurricane Beryl reaches 240 km/h near Carriacou in the Leeward Islands

On Monday, July 1, Hurricane Beryl ripped across the tiny Leeward Islands with winds of up to 150 mph, as storm experts watched in amazement and concern as the cyclone evolved from a tropical storm to a raging Category 4 storm in a matter of day.

And then it became a Category 5 storm. Early Tuesday morning, Beryl had sustained winds of 165 mph (265 km/h) as it moved west-northwest at 22 mph (35 km/h) about 700 miles (1,129 km) east of Kingston, Jamaica.

The world has never seen anything like it in the Atlantic basin. Beryl is the earliest Category 4 hurricane, then the earliest Category 5 hurricane to form. Its rapid intensification is the strongest ever recorded at this time of year. It was the farthest easterly hurricane ever recorded in June.

“We watched in disbelief,” said Brian McNoldy, senior research associate at the University of Miami. “This is rare even in mid-September, and now we're in late June, early July, and we're seeing things you rarely see otherwise.”

Beryl is not currently a concern for the United States, but McNoldy was among a chorus of meteorologists who viewed Beryl's wild extravagance as a harbinger of a potentially brutal season.

“Florida residents should prepare for what could be a very long and trying few months,” said Jeff Masters, co-founder of Weather Underground and a meteorologist at Yale Climate Connections. “Conditions are ripe for a crazy hurricane season.”

The last time a storm of Beryl's strength made landfall so early in the Caribbean was in 2005, when Hurricane Dennis (Category 4) made landfall on July 8. That same month, Dennis was followed by Category 5 Emily, which developed into a hurricane just east of the Caribbean and followed a similar trajectory to Beryl's forecast track south from Cuba to Mexico.

More:2024 hurricane season: Predictions for rapid intensification improve – and then there was Otis

In 2005, there were 28 named storms—a record-breaker until 2020, when 30 storms formed. It was also a season that extended well into winter, even extending into 2006, when Tropical Storm Zeta finally dissipated on January 6.

And it was a year that saw four Category 5 storms, including the devastating impacts of major hurricanes Katrina, Rita and Wilma on the U.S. landmass.

Hurricane Beryl sets records

“Unfortunately, Beryl is breaking records set in 1933 and 2005 – two of the most intense Atlantic hurricane seasons ever recorded,” said Phil Klotzbach, lead researcher and hurricane expert at Colorado State University.

Eric Blake, chief hurricane specialist at the National Hurricane Center, described Beryl in a social media post on Sunday with the simple words “Holy Bimbos.”

One aspect that makes the formation of beryl so unusual is the fact that wind shear, Saharan dust and cooler ocean temperatures at this time of year tend to inhibit storm formation in the main developing region between Africa and the Caribbean.

Although the thickest Saharan dust cloud of the season blew over the Atlantic last week, Beryl hovered beneath the dry air, benefiting from low wind shear and record-high ocean temperatures.

The National Hurricane Center initially identified the tropical wave that would become Beryl on Tuesday, June 25, as a mess of showers and thunderstorms a few hundred miles south of Cape Verde. By Friday evening, it was a tropical storm forecast to reach Category 2 with winds up to 105 mph.

Live Hurricane Tracker: See Beryl’s Path:

Live Storm Tracking: See Beryl’s Path

Early Saturday, NHC meteorologists said there was a significant chance of rapid intensification, which is defined as an increase in wind speed of 35 miles per hour or more within 24 hours.

Beryl's intensification nearly doubled, increasing by 65 mph within 24 hours.

This rapid intensification rate is the strongest ever recorded for a hurricane so early in the calendar year, Klotzbach said, although he cautioned that intensification rates were likely underestimated before the start of the satellite era in 1966.

The previous record for the fastest intensification was Bertha in 2008.

Remember the off-season?:Two decades later, 2004 will be remembered as the “bad season” when hurricanes devastated Florida.

“I think we should look into it. Unfortunately, it's not good news,” McNoldy said of Beryl. “It's going to be a crazy season because we have such warm water temperatures.”

The water temperature where Beryl rotated on Monday was up to 29 degrees, which would be more comparable to the second week of September.

While last year's hurricane season was a novelty due to the storm-preventing El Niño climate pattern and storm-friendly water temperatures, this year is unique in that the hot water is still simmering, but La Niña is moving in. La Niña reduces wind shear in the Atlantic, giving tropical cyclones more opportunities to gain a foothold.

Behind Hurricane Beryl lies an area with a 60 percent chance of development

Behind Beryl, a low-pressure system called Invest 96L was given a 60 percent chance of developing in the next seven days. In a normal year, Beryl might have pulled up enough cold water to deter 96L, but McNoldy said the warm water was deep enough that upwelling was unlikely.

The short-lived Tropical Storm Chris also formed and dissipated after making landfall in Mexico early Monday.

“The oceanic and atmospheric conditions are unprecedented for this time of year,” Masters said. “The peak of hurricane season is still over a month and a half away.”

Kimberly Miller is a journalist for The Palm Beach Post, part of the USA Today Network of Florida. She covers real estate and how growth is affecting the environment in South Florida. Subscribe to The Dirt for a weekly real estate roundup. If you have news tips, please send them to [email protected]. Support our local journalism: Subscribe today.

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Hurricane Beryl reaches 240 km/h near Carriacou in the Leeward Islands

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