Hurricane Beryl Stuns With Early Season Power

Satellite view of impressive Hurricane Beryl on
Sunday, the first Category 4 storm on record
to form in the Atlantic. 

 Hurricane Beryl, which I reported yesterday would get a lot stronger, really over-performed even those expectations. 

As of noon today, Beryl was a Category 4 powerhouse, with top sustained winds of 135 mph. Meteorologists and climatologists are stunned that a hurricane this early in the season would get so strong. 

It's easily the earliest Category 4 hurricane on record in the Atlantic Ocean. The previous record hold was Hurricane Dennis in the very busy year of 2005.

Hurricane Beryl does seem to be a harbinger of a very busy hurricane season. As I mentioned yesterday, Atlantic waters in many areas are at or near record warmth. Weather patterns are also expected to favor hurricanes this year. 

Although it's hard to tie specific weather events to climate change, Hurricane Beryl is definitely consistent with what to expect as the world warms. The oceans are getting warmer, making it easier for hurricanes to form and become stronger than they otherwise would be. 

Category 4's are almost always limited to the August into the first part of October. Category 4 hurricanes have winds of between 130 and 156 mph.

Even slightly weaker Category 3 storms, still regarded as major hurricanes are exceedingly rare in June. 

Per the Washington Post: 

"Before now, the Atlantic has only ever seen two major hurricanes during June - Audrey in 1957 and Alma in 1966. 'Major' hurricanes are this rated as Category 3 or higher. Both Audrey and Alma occurred in the Gulf of Mexico as early-season 'homegrown' storms. The Atlantic's Main Development Region, located between northern South America and Africa, was always believed to be inhospitable to major hurricanes during the month of June - until now."

Hurricane warnings are now up for Barbados, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadine islands, Grenada and Tobago.

Beryl will probably slam those islands Monday, then head into the central Caribbean Sea.  Once it gets there, stronger upper level winds will start disrupting the hurricane's tall thunderstorms, making the overall hurricane slowly weaken.

It is still forecast to be a hurricane, though, by the time it approaches Mexico by the end of the week. Though Mexico is the most likely target, Beryl could veer north toward the Gulf of Mexico, or divert toward central America. 

Another disturbance Sunday along the coast of Mexico in the far southwestern Gulf of Mexico could turn into a tropical depression or storm later today before it moves ashore by tomorrow morning. Another disturbance way out in the central Atlantic that's roughly following the path of Beryl could become a tropical storm within a few days.