Hurricane Beryl makes landfall in Grenadine Islands as a Category 4 storm with 150 mph winds

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Hurricane Beryl, which became the season’s first major hurricane Sunday, made landfall about 11:10 a.m. Eastern time Monday in the Grenadine Islands, just north of Grenada as a powerful Category 4 storm with sustained winds of 150 mph.

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.

As of 2 p.m. Monday, it was about 65 miles west-northwest of Grenada and traveling at 20 mph. Forecasters expect it to maintain its major-hurricane status as it sweeps into the Caribbean Sea.

Hurricane-force winds extend outward up to 40 miles from the center and tropical-storm-force winds extend outward up to 125 miles.

Most of Jamaica, Belize and parts of Mexico were within Beryl’s cone Monday. Jamaica has issued a hurricane watch. The storm’s 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 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.

“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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