Tropical storm Beryl 2024: Storm forecast to hit Barbados threatening the Caribbean - and potentially bringing the first hurricane of the year
Tropical Storm Beryl is heading towards the south-east Caribbean and could turn into the year’s first hurricane.
A hurricane watch was issued for Barbados as the island’s meteorological service warned of flash flooding and power outages. It added that the storm’s centre was forecast to pass some 26 miles south of the island.
Early Saturday (29 June), Beryl was located about 975 miles east-southeast of Barbados, with maximum sustained winds of 50mph. It was moving west at 21mph.
“We need to be ready,” Barbadian Prime Minister Mia Mottley said in a public address late Friday. “You and I know when these things happen, it is better to plan for the worst and pray for the best.”
She noted that thousands of people are in Barbados for the Twenty20 World Cup cricket final, with India and South Africa playing in the capital, Bridgetown, on Saturday. Beryl is the second named storm in what is predicted to be a busy hurricane season, which runs from June 1 to November 30 in the Atlantic.
“The development of a tropical storm this far east in the tropical Atlantic is uncommon, though not unprecedented,” wrote Michael Lowry, a Florida-based hurricane expert, in a forecast. “Only five named storms on record have formed in the tropical Atlantic east of the Caribbean.” Of those, only one hurricane of record has formed east of the Caribbean in June, he added.
Mark Spence, manager of a hostel in Barbados, said that he was calm about the approaching storm. “It’s the season. You can get a storm any time,” he said. “I’m always prepared. I always have enough food in my house.” Beryl is expected to drop up to six inches of rain in Barbados and nearby islands, and a high surf warning of waves up to 13 feet was in effect.