Beryl Does Not Bode Well for Hurricane Season

Hurricane Beryl hit winds of 200mph Tuesday in the Caribbean as it churned toward Jamaica, having already made history as the earliest Category 5 storm ever logged in the Atlantic. A look at factors behind the quick escalation of the storm (which is not expected to threaten the US mainland):

• Friday night: Beryl became a tropical storm with winds of 39mph.
• Saturday afternoon: Beryl became the season's first hurricane, with winds of 75mph.
• Sunday morning: It turned into the earliest Category 4 hurricane in the Atlantic with winds of 130mph.
• Monday night: The storm clocked in as the earliest Category 5 storm with winds of 160mph.

• 42 hours: Beryl went from a tropical depression to a major hurricane in a mere 42 hours, becoming only the seventh Atlantic storm to do so and the earliest one ever, per the AP. It is also the furthest east a hurricane has formed in the Atlantic in the month of June.
• Why? The big factor is warm water. The Atlantic is 2 to 3 degrees Fahrenheit warmer than usual, notes the Wall Street Journal, and hurricanes "soak up warm ocean water and use it as fuel," explains the New York Times. While early hurricanes tend not to be a predictor of the following season, Beryl might be different because of how far east it formed. And given the warming climate, it may end up being a harbinger, not a fluke.
• Quote I: "This early-season storm activity is breaking records that were set in 1933 and 2005, two of the busiest Atlantic hurricane seasons on record," Philip Klotzbach of Colorado State University tells the Times.
• Quote II: "What's unusual about Beryl is not only how quickly it intensified, but it did it right from the beginning," John Cangialosi of the National Hurricane Center in Miami tells the Journal. "This is something we characteristically see during peak hurricane-formation season in August, September, or October."
• Its path: Beryl is expected to pass near or over Jamaica Wednesday and lose steam before reaching Mexico's Yucatan peninsula on Friday. At least four people were killed by the storm in the southeast Caribbean.

(More hurricanes stories.)