Hurricane Beryl strengthened into a Category 4 storm and made landfall on Grenada’s Carriacou island a few hours later on Monday.
The National Hurricane Center said data from the Air Force Reserve’s Hurricane Hunter aircraft showed Beryl’s maximum sustained winds had increased to 150 mph. The updated advisory also said Grenada, the Grenadines and Carriacou were experiencing life-threatening winds and a dangerous storm surge, and that residents “should not leave their shelters.”
NHC forecasters said they expect Beryl to move rapidly in a west to west-northwest direction over the next few days. The storm is expected to move across the southeastern and central Caribbean from Monday night into Wednesday.
Beryl was briefly a Category 3 hurricane on Monday morning but has since strengthened again, becoming a Category 4 hurricane with maximum sustained winds of nearly 130 mph, according to the NHC.
“While some strength fluctuations are possible over the next day or so, Beryl is expected to remain an extremely dangerous major hurricane as its center moves from the Windward Islands into the eastern Caribbean,” the NHC said in an 11 a.m. ET alert.
The NHC also said Beryl is expected to remain a hurricane but is expected to weaken slightly in the central Caribbean by mid-week.
Hurricane Beryl live updates:‘Potentially catastrophic’ Hurricane Beryl nearing landfall
Tropical Storm Chris makes landfall in Mexico
In addition to Beryl, the NHC is also tracking Tropical Storm Chris, which made landfall in Mexico early Monday and brought heavy rains and flooding to parts of eastern Mexico.
The NHC said Chris was moving westward at about 12 mph and was expected to continue that motion over the next day or so, and that the center of Chris would likely move into inland Mexico through Monday before dissipating later today.
Investment 96L is likely to become a tropical cyclone
Elsewhere in the Atlantic, the NHC is monitoring showers and thunderstorms associated with a “low pressure area” located about 1,000 miles west-southwest of the Cape Verde Islands.
The storm, named Invest 96L, will track westward across the central and western tropical Atlantic and will likely become a tropical depression by mid-week, according to the NHC.
Atlantic Storm Tracking
Tracking the Path of Hurricane Beryl
This forecast track shows the most likely path of the storm’s center. It does not indicate the full width of the storm or its impact, and there is up to a 33% chance that the storm’s center will move outside the cone.
Hurricane Beryl Spaghetti Model
The chart includes a variety of forecasting tools and models, but not all are created equal: the Hurricane Center only uses the top four or five best-performing models to make its forecasts.
Contributor: Cheryl McLeod, USA TODAY Network Florida; Susan Miller and John Bacon, USA Today
Gabe Haouari is a national trend news reporter for USA Today. You can follow him on X. Gabe Haouari Or email me at Gdhauari@gannett.com.
