Hurricane Beryl Devastates The Caribbean Islands: What Fueled Such A High-Intensity Storm?

Hurricane Beryl smashed the islands in the Caribbean Sea on Monday and was recognised as an extremely dangerous category 4 storm. The storm brought with itself cataclysmic wind, heavy downpours and storm surges that threatened life.

Beryl had hit the windward islands shortly after 11:00 am EDT on Grenada’s Carriacou Island in the Caribbean with ferocious winds travelling at 150 mph or 240 kmph. As per the data from NOAA, it is the strongest hurricane to pass through the islands since 1851.

There were “widespread reports of destruction and devastation in Carriacou and Petite Martinique,” Grenada Prime Minister Dickon Mitchell said in a Monday news briefing. “In half an hour, Carriacou was flattened.”

Mitchell said there were no immediate reports of death or injury but warned that could change. “You have to appreciate the ferocity and the strength of the hurricane and therefore we are not yet out of the woods,” he said. “And we are not able to say for sure that no one has been injured or there has been no loss of life as a result of the hurricane.”

Caught Experts Off-guard

In a meteorological feat that caught the experts off guard, Beryl surged into record books as the earliest June hurricane to achieve Category 4 status, packing winds exceeding 130 mph. What’s more astonishing is how swiftly it transformed from a nondescript depression to a powerhouse: within a mere 48 hours, its wind speeds skyrocketed by a staggering 63 mph.

Kristen Corbosiero, an atmospheric scientist from the University at Albany, weighed in on Beryl’s unusual trajectory. Typically, major hurricanes veer northward, but Beryl defied convention by charting a remarkably southern course, adding a new twist to its formidable profile.

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“Beryl is unprecedentedly strange,” said Weather Underground co-founder Jeff Masters, a former government hurricane meteorologist who flew into storms. “It is so far outside the climatology that you look at it and you say, ‘How did this happen in June?’”

Worst Hurricane Of 2024?

The forecasters are now comparing this storm to the greatest tragedies ever caused by hurricanes in previous years recalling the years 1933 and 2005 which were raided by hurricanes Katrina, Rita, Wilma and Dennis.

“This is the type of storm that we expect this year, these outlier things that happen when and where they shouldn’t,” University of Miami tropical weather researcher Brian McNoldy said. “Not only for things to form and intensify and reach higher intensities, but increase the likelihood of rapid intensification. All of that is just coming together right now, and this won’t be the last time.”

Colorado State University hurricane researcher Phil Klotzbach called Beryl “a harbinger potentially of more interesting stuff coming down the pike. Not that Beryl isn’t interesting in and of itself, but even more potential threats and more — and not just a one-off — maybe several of these kinds of storms coming down later.”

How Does Warm Water Fuel Hurricanes

It is basic knowledge that Hurricanes often known as Cyclones in the Asian regions are fueled by heat and the interchanging pressure of winds from high pressure which is cold wind to low pressure which is war winds.

This time the water temperatures around the Beryl are about 2-3.6 degrees higher than normal, which acts as a great propellent for Hurricanes. In a hurricane, the colder wind draws itself to the low-pressure warm areas and thus the warmer the surface of the ocean and wind the better the chance of it to rise higher in the atmosphere and create denser thunderstorms. Sea surface temperatures in the Atlantic and Caribbean “are above what the average September temperature should be looking at the last 30-year average,” Masters said.

It’s not merely surface temperatures that are crucial. The ocean heat content, which gauges the warmth of deeper waters essential for fueling storms, has surged well beyond typical levels for this season and even surpasses what we typically see at the September peak, McNoldy explained. “So when you get all that heat energy you can expect some fireworks,” Masters said.

The La Nina Factor

The temperature of water in the Atlantic has been warm and on the rise since March 2023 and has hit a record since April 2023. La Nina is also being considered as a factor for the rise of such storms.

La Nina basically cools down the ocean water in the Pacific and in return, the waters in the Atlantic get warmer and this becomes a potential fuel for the storms. While La Nina suspends high-altitude cross-winds in the Pacific it has a reverse impact in the Atlantic.

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