Hurricane Central
By weather.com meteorologists
less than an hour ago
At a Glance
- Hurricane Beryl is now in the eastern Caribbean Sea after hammering the Windard Islands.
- It's a threat to Jamaica, the Cayman Islands and Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula this week.
- It's still too soon to tell where it will track in the southwest Gulf of Mexico this weekend.
- There's one more system behind Beryl in the Atlantic we're watching.
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Hurricane Beryl is now in the Caribbean Sea after a historic Windward Islands landfall with destructive winds, storm surge and flooding rainfall.
Current status: The center of Hurricane Beryl and its most intense eyewall winds are now cruising quickly away from the Windward Islands. However, heavy rain and strong wind gusts continue over St. Vincent and the Grenadines, as well as Grenada. Bands of heavier showers also extend as far north as the Leeward Islands. Conditions are improving on Barbados.
(MORE: Live News Updates, Impacts)
Historic landfall: Beryl made landfall just after 11 a.m. EDT Monday over the Grenadan island of Carriacou with maximum sustained winds of 150 mph. Among only two other Category 4 hurricanes in history near Grenada and St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Beryl was the strongest by wind speed.
Storm reports: Storm chasers Brandon Clement and Jonathan Petramala reported the roof ripped off of a building they were reporting from on Carriacou Island late Monday morning as the eyewall moved in. The National Hurricane Center's 11 a.m. EDT Monday advisory cited "multiple reports of downed trees, flooded streets, power outages and storm surge flooding in the Grenadines, Grenada, Barbados and Tobago."
After briefly weakening to a Category 3 overnight following an eyewall replacement cycle, the hurricane once again returned to Category 4 strength Monday morning.
Its wind field grew larger since Sunday, with hurricane-force winds now extending out up to 40 miles from Beryl's center. While its eyewall passed south of Barbados, a 69 mph gust was clocked early Monday at Grantley Adams International Airport, the island's major airport. Grenada clocked a wind gust up to 121 mph as the center of Beryl tracked just north of the island.
Watches, warnings and impacts: All warnings have been dropped for Barbados, Trinidad and Tobago. Hurricane warnings continue for St. Vincent and the Grenadine Islands and Grenada, but will likely be dropped later today.
Heavy rain and occasional strong wind gusts will end by Monday evening in the Windward Islands. This could cause additional power outages, downed trees, some scattered structural damage, as well as flash flooding and landslides, in areas of higher terrain.
A hurricane watch has been issued for Jamaica and a tropical storm watch remains in effect for the south coast of Haiti and southwest coast of the Dominican Republic.
Beryl's Caribbean future: After moving on from the Windward Islands, we expect Beryl to take a general west-northwest track in the Caribbean Sea through the rest of this week.
(MORE: What The Forecast Cone Means, And Doesn't)
Beryl could eventually pose a danger to Jamaica and the Cayman Islands Wednesday and Thursday, and then Belize and Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula on Friday. However, there's uncertainty in that exact track, as shown in the model forecast track map below, which matters for what impacts could occur.
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Later this week, Beryl is expected to face increasing wind shear in the western Caribbean Sea, usually a factor that disrupts hurricanes.
While that is expected to induce some weakening of Beryl, it is still expected to be a hurricane until its landfall in the Yucatan Peninsula later this week.
Any U.S. concern? High pressure over the Southeast should protect the eastern U.S. Gulf Coast from Beryl by this weekend.
However, if Beryl emerges into the southwest Gulf of Mexico this weekend as forecast, most model tracks eventually take Beryl into eastern Mexico, by early next week.
However, it's not out of the question Beryl could take a subtle northward jog early next week if that Southeast ridge moves away or weakens just enough.
The bottom line: All interests around the Caribbean Sea, including from Jamaica and the Cayman Islands to the Yucatan Peninsula, should monitor the forecast of Beryl closely over the next several days and have their hurricane plans ready to go.
Residents along the Gulf Coast from eastern Mexico to Texas should, for now, monitor the forecasts in the coming days.
That's not all we're watching: There is another tropical disturbance in the Atlantic Basin, as depicted in the map below.
The system is in the far eastern Atlantic Ocean and has been dubbed Invest 96L by the NHC. It has a medium chance of development this week, and will remain over the open ocean until nearing the Windward Islands around the middle of this week, just a couple of days after Beryl's devastating strike.
Chris made landfall in eastern Mexico early this morning as a tropical storm. Flooding rainfall is the main impact from this short-lived system which will dissipate later today.
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