Beryl became the first hurricane to form in the 2024 season.
Hurricane Beryl strengthened into a Category 4 storm on June 30, becoming the first hurricane to form during the 2024 season.
Located about 250 miles southeast of Barbados in the Caribbean, Beryl had 130 mile-per-hour winds, the National Hurricane Center said in a 5 p.m. EDT advisory. The storm is expected to hit the Windward Islands on July 1 as a major Category 3 hurricane or higher before it hits part of Jamaica in the coming days.
Hurricane warnings were in effect for Barbados, St. Lucia, Grenada, and St. Vincent and the Grenadines. A tropical storm warning was in effect for Martinique, and a tropical storm watch was issued for Dominica and Trinidad.
“This is a very serious situation developing for the Windward Islands,” warned the National Hurricane Center in Miami, which said that Beryl was “forecast to bring life-threatening winds and storm surge.”
Beryl is expected to pass just south of Barbados early on July 1 and then head into the Caribbean Sea as a major hurricane on a path toward Jamaica. It is expected to weaken by midweek but still remain a hurricane as it heads toward Mexico, according to the center.
Other forecasting models suggest that Beryl could instead pass into the Gulf of Mexico between Cuba and Mexico before reaching the mainland United States.
However, other models show that the storm could hit Mexico before its remnants pass into parts of Texas, and more models suggest that the storm could pass through southern Mexico or other Central American countries before its remains reach the Pacific Ocean.