Hurricane Beryl takes aim at Caribbean with Jamaica in its path; Chris becomes a depression

Hurricane Beryl, which became the season’s first major hurricane on Sunday, reaching Category 4 strength, saw its intensity tick down to 120 mph early Monday morning, making it a Category 3 storm as it approached the Caribbean.

Still, Beryl is packing “life-threatening winds and storm surge” of as much as 6 to 9 feet and 3 to 6 inches of rain across Barbados and the Windward Islands on its approach to the far eastern Caribbean early Monday, according to the National Hurricane Center.

Beryl is expected to hit the Windward Islands Monday then continue into the eastern Caribbean.

It is forecast to maintain its major-hurricane status as it sweeps into the Caribbean Sea.

Most of Jamaica, Belize and parts of Mexico were within Beryl’s cone Monday. Its hurricane-force winds extend outward up to 35 miles from Beryl’s center and tropical-storm-force winds extend outward up to 125 miles.

A hurricane warning is in effect for Barbados, St. Lucia, St. Vincent, Tobago, and the Grenadine Islands and Grenada, while a tropical storm warning is in effect for Martinique and Trinidad. A tropical storm watch is in effect for Dominica, the Dominican Republic from Punta Palenque westward to the border with Haiti and the entire south coast of Haiti from the border of the Dominican Republic to Anse d’Hainault.

At 5 a.m. Monday, Hurricane Beryl was 140 miles south-southeast of Barbados and 125 miles east-southeast of Grenada, moving west at 20 mph.

“Development this far east in late June is unusual,” the forecasters at the hurricane center said. “In fact, there have only been a few storms in history that have formed over the central or eastern tropical Atlantic this early in the year.”

“Beryl is the easternmost hurricane and ‘major hurricane’ to form in the tropical Atlantic during the month of June,” The Weather Channel reported.

Beryl is expected to remain a significant hurricane as it moves through the eastern Caribbean and may weaken some by midweek, but will remain a hurricane, forecasters said Monday.

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