Hurricane Beryl’s rapid intensification with Category 5 winds

Hurricane Beryl. NOAA

Hurricane Beryl’s rapid intensification with Category 5 winds, in the Caribbean Sea. This is how this happened.

On June 28, 2024, Beryl formed as a tropical storm in the Atlantic Ocean. By the next day, it had strengthened into a hurricane. Beryl is unusual because most hurricanes forming this far east in the Atlantic appear later in the season.

On June 30, 2024, Beryl intensified into a major category-four hurricane, becoming the earliest category-four storm in recorded history in the Atlantic Basin. On July 1, 2024, Hurricane Beryl made landfall on Carriacou Island with 150 mph winds.

After making landfall and entering the Caribbean Sea on the same day, Hurricane Beryl set another record, becoming the earliest category five storm ever observed and only the second category five storm to form in July.

Hurricane Beryl is expected to bring destructive conditions to Jamaica and the Cayman Islands before reaching Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula in the coming days.

Two satellite images of Beryl were taken on June 29, left, and June 30. (Cooperative Institute for Research in the Atmosphere)