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Hurricane Beryl is pummeling the Windward Islands, and it has become the earliest-ever Atlantic storm to reach Category 4 status-- spelling danger for the Caribbean's already-grim outlook on the 2024 hurricane season.
Beryl formed on June 28 in the middle of the Atlantic as a tropical depression, and it rapidly intensified in 42 hours to become a major hurricane (Category 3 or higher), making it the only hurricane ever to reach Category 4 before July. It is also only the fourth-ever Atlantic hurricane to reach Category 3 or more this early in the season, after Hurricane Dennis on June 8, 2005, Hurricane Alma on June 8, 1966, and Hurricane Audrey on June 27, 1957. To add onto those records, Beryl is also the easternmost storm to form inn June, beating a hurricane in 1933. In fact, the average date for the first hurricane of the season is August 11, meaning that Beryl is a truly abnormal storm.
It weakened slightly before passing Barbados, which was hit with powerful winds and heavy rain, but it restrengthened and is packing winds of over 130 mph and widespread rain of 3-6 inches across the area. Barbados, Tobago, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, and Grenada are all under hurricane warnings, and the last three are all possibly expected to get hit by the eyewall-- the strongest portion of the storm. It is currently moving in, and multiple airports across the area are closing down due to Beryl. This will also affect the thousands of cricket fans who traveled to Barbados from around the world to see this year's T20 World Cup, and the buzzing summer travel industry.
After striking the Windward Islands, Beryl's future is unknown, but it is expected to continue at this intensity through the warm waters of the Caribbean Sea as it passes Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic. It will pass quite far south of Haiti as it weakens slightly, and it should weaken to a Category 2 before slamming Jamaica and Mexico's Yucatán Peninsula before fizzling out around the eastern Mexican coast. However, as conditions are very abnormal and meteorologists don't know what to expect, it could end up stronger than expected due to warm waters or even completely fizzle out before it even makes it to Mexico due to high wind shear.
In some other Atlantic hurricane season news, Tropical Storm Chris has also formed just off the coast of eastern Mexico with some rain and strong winds, and it has already made landfall. However, it is not expected to do much damage, as did not have any time to strengthen before it hit the coast.
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Fact of the Day (Readers' Digest): Only baby cats produce enough of the lactase enzyme to drink milk, meaning that all adult cats cannot drink milk because they are lactose intolerant.
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In a Sentence: Kudos to everyone who helped clean up the community garden.
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