With Beryl, the hurricane season in the Caribbean is earlier than ever

Hurricane Beryl is the fastest to reach category 4 in the history of detections.It has already hit many Caribbean islands hard.

The alarm continues in the Caribbean Sea due to the passage of theHurricane Beryl, which for days now has been causing great difficulty to the Caribbean islands it has encountered along its path.According to data released by the hurricane observatory of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa), in the last 24 hours Beryl has reached category 5 size and intensity, the highest on the Saffir-Simpson scale with which tropical storms are classified.The winds recorded so far have exceeded 260 kilometers per hour.During its passage Beryl hit the Carriacou and Petite Martinique islands, the island of Grenada and Saint Lucia and is apparently heading towards the Mexican peninsula of Yucatan, where it is expected on Saturday.But the biggest concerns around this highly destructive phenomenon are timing:Beryl is in fact thehurricane earliest ever recorded, almost a month ahead of the season average.

Power outage in small Carriacou, electricity grids out of order in Grenada

Beryl was the first Category 4 hurricane to ever be recorded in June.In a very short time, approximately 42 hours, the findings of the US Oceanographic and Meteorological Service went from classifying it as a tropical depression to a major hurricane.In the history of surveys, growth of similar proportions in such a short time had been documented only six times, but never so early.Beryl was also the earliest Category 4 Atlantic hurricane on record, beating Hurricane Dennis, which became a Category 4 storm on July 8, 2005.

Beryl struck land in the southeastern Caribbean on Monday with winds exceeding 240 kilometers per hour.He reached the island of Carriacou, in the Caribbean Sea, as a level 4 hurricane, causing extensive damage to the few structures in the area.It then spilled onto the streets of the island of St.Lucia And Grenada, in which shoes were floating, trees were uprooted and power lines were out of order.Prime Minister Dickon Mitchell here he stated that a person has died, but it is still impossible to truly estimate the damage and victims of the incident accompanied by officials and experts, to assess the situation firsthand.According to the disseminated information by the US Public Broadcasting Service, the storm broke banana trees in two and killed cows lying in the pastures.The tin houses nearby were completely demolished.

Shortly thereafter, reports were released that Beryl was approximately 205 kilometers northwest of Grenada and moving west-northwest at 21.33 kilometers per hour, with hurricane conditions possible in Jamaica on Wednesday.Meanwhile, the National Hurricane Center reported that the hurricane had further strengthened:“Beryl is now a potentially catastrophic Category 5 hurricane:Fluctuations in intensity are likely, but it is expected to still be close to that high intensity" when it moves towards Jamaica today (Tuesday), the body said in a statement.

The alerts issued by the authorities involved Jamaica, Grenada, Saint Lucia, Martinique, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, the entire southern coast of Haiti and the southern coast of the Dominican Republic:“Beryl is expected to remain an extremely dangerous major hurricane as it moves over the eastern Caribbean,” the National Hurricane Center said.

The role of La Niña in an unusual hurricane season

Noaa in spring he had predicted that this year's hurricane season would be more intense than average due to weather conditions.Estimates were of 17 – 25 tropical storms in 2024, of which 8 – 13 hurricanes.“On average there are 14 tropical storms a year in the Atlantic.In 2020, during the last Niña, there were 30 tropical storms and 14 hurricanes,” we read from the Post.

There Nina, a meteorological phenomenon which together with El Niño is part of the “El Niño-Southern Oscillation” o Enso a phenomenon determined by variations in temperature in the ocean and pressure in the atmosphere.La Niña has the effect of cooling waters and the arrival of very abundant rainfall in countries such as South-East Asia and Australia, in addition to a hardening of temperatures in many areas of the globe.Another effect is the weakening of winds over the tropical Atlantic, and an increased chance of more intense tropical storms.

The early hurricane season in the Atlantic Ocean

Normally the hurricane season in the western Atlantic Ocean runs from early June to late November.Since 1966, when we have had accurate satellite data, the first hurricane of the season has formed on average around July 26th.Usually the first hurricanes of the season do not reach such high categories:So far, the earliest Category 4 hurricane recorded wasHurricane Dennis, on 8 July 2005, and even those in category 3 have always been very rare in June.The strongest storms in the North Atlantic occur in August, taking advantage of more clade surface waters.The evaporation of water due to temperatures is fundamental because it is thanks to it that the clouds are formed which will then fuel the actual storms.

The months preceding the warmer ones would therefore act as preparation for the actual hurricane season.This calendar, however, was completely subverted by Beryl, who demonstrated how global and ocean surface warming is concretely impacting natural balances and climate cycles.