Hurricane Beryl strengthened into a Category 5 storm on Monday night, hours after it roared across several Caribbean islands, the National Hurricane Center of the United States said.
It was the earliest Atlantic Category 5 hurricane on record, according to Philip Klotzbach, a meteorologist at Colorado State University who specializes in tropical cyclones. The previous record was Hurricane Emily on July 17, 2005, he said on X.
Beryl devastated islands in Grenada and St. Vincent and the Grenadines after making landfall earlier on Monday as a Category 4 hurricane. Officials in the two nations reported one death each. It also threw life-threatening winds and storm surges at other islands across the Caribbean.
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When Beryl developed into a Category 4 hurricane on Sunday, it was the earliest in a season that a storm had reached such strength. The earliest Category 4 hurricane on record had been Hurricane Dennis on July 8, 2005.
Beryl, the first hurricane of the 2024 season, was downgraded slightly early Monday but strengthened again to a Category 4 storm, with maximum sustained winds near 155 miles per hour, according to the National Hurricane Center.
By Monday night, sustained wind speeds had increased to 160 miles per hour, the center said, making it a Category 5 storm.
A tropical storm warning was in effect for parts of Haiti and the Dominican Republic. A hurricane warning was in effect for Jamaica, where hurricane conditions are possible by Wednesday, the center said.
Officials in Barbados said Monday morning that the island had been spared from the worst of the hurricane, which passed close to the southern tip of the country.
Hurricanes in the Atlantic Ocean have become more likely to grow from a weak storm into a major Category 3 or higher hurricane within just 24 hours, according to a study published last year.
Devastating winds from Beryl will occur where the eye wall, the area that surrounds the eye of a hurricane, scrapes across the islands. Across the higher elevations of the hills and mountains of the islands, the winds might be even stronger.
Beryl is the third earliest major hurricane to ever form in the Atlantic, according to Philip Klotzbach, an expert in seasonal hurricane forecasts at Colorado State University. The only hurricanes to have formed earlier in a calendar year were Alma on June 8, 1966, and Audrey on June 27, 1957. Both made landfall on the U.S. coastline in the Gulf of Mexico: Alma near St. Marks, Fla., and Audrey near Port Arthur, Texas.
Beryl became a tropical storm late on Friday when its sustained winds reached 39 miles per hour. At 74 m.p.h., a storm becomes a hurricane.
There was no electricity on any of Grenada’s islands on Monday morning and communication was difficult.
Mr. Dickon said that there have been reports of extensive storm surge, losses of roofs and widespread damage to buildings. In Grenada, even before the hurricane made landfall, the roof of one police station had blown off. The roof of a hospital was also damaged and patients were evacuated to the lower level, Mr. Dickon said.
Officials said they hoped to begin damage assessment and recovery operations by late evening.
In Barbados, officials said they appeared to have avoided the worst effects of Beryl.
There were no overnight reports of injuries, Wilfred Abrahams, the minister of home affairs and information, said during on a broadcast from the emergency operations center in a daybreak broadcast.
“We dodged a bullet,” he said. “Or we’re in the process of dodging a bullet, but there is still a lot of weather to come.”
After Beryl passes through the eastern Caribbean Islands on Monday, it is expected to continue pushing west over the central Caribbean, skirting just south of Jamaica in the middle of the week and into the Yucatán Peninsula by the weekend. There is some indication that the hurricane may weaken over the central Caribbean.
Forecasters have warned that the 2024 Atlantic hurricane season could be much more active than usual.
In late May, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration predicted 17 to 25 named storms this year, an “above-normal” number and a prediction in line with more than a dozen forecasts earlier in the year from experts at universities, private companies and government agencies.
Hurricane seasons produce 14 named storms, on average.