(Photo: Wikimedia Commons/NASA/Matthew Dominick)
Hurricane Beryl has intensified over the weekend and has caused unimaginable damages. The World Meteorological Organization (WMO), which tracks Beryl's course, warned that more storms might be as powerful or worse than Beryl in the future.
Beryl Foreshadows Future Hurricanes, WMO Warns
The WMO, the United Nation's weather and climate agency, said the record-breaking tropical storm quickly strengthened as it gained strength over the warmer Atlantic Ocean and transformed into a system that dumped a ton of rain.
The scientific officer of the WMO's tropical cyclone program, Anne-Claire Fontan, stated that Beryl indicates an extremely busy Atlantic hurricane season in 2024. It formed in a rare location for this time of year and developed very swiftly.
June was the earliest they'd ever seen a hurricane hit category 4. It then swiftly intensified to category 5, indicating a very speedy escalation. The expert said it began the season in Category 5 quite early on.
It's truly rather uncommon. In fact, Hurricane Beryl broke records, Fontan added.
The location has had a notable positive anomaly of hot water for over a year. Considering that cyclones are powered by ocean energy, that's a lot of energy.
As Fontan mentioned, temperature affects the intensity of hurricanes. With global warming, more powerful and devastating storms may hit us.
She added that Beryl serves as an example of the kind of systems we should anticipate in the future: category 5 storms with heavy rain that intensify quickly and have a lot of energy at the ocean level.
Per Fontan, global warming does not always translate into increased tropical cyclone activity - in frequency. However, we anticipate a change toward far more potent systems with considerably greater winds. An additional factor is that greater rain will be linked to tropical cyclones in a warmer environment that can hold onto more moisture.
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Hurricane Beryl Update
The number of fatalities from Hurricane Beryl as it strikes Jamaica and the Cayman Islands keeps rising. As of the time of writing, the Category 4 hurricane had claimed at least nine lives. According to reports, three persons perished in Venezuela, three in St. Vincent and the Grenadines, and three in Grenada and Carriacou.
Once communications are restored after being disrupted by the deadly tropical storm's flooding and strong winds, the number is anticipated to rise.
Hurricane Beryl, a Category 5 storm that made landfall on tiny Caribbean islands, reached its zenith early on Tuesday, July 2. It was still a powerful storm when it made landfall in Jamaica and the Cayman Islands on Wednesday.
Prime Minister Andrew Holness imposed a 12-hour curfew at 6 a.m. before Beryl arrived in Jamaica and issued an evacuation order in low-lying areas.
According to Holness, some 500 people were given shelter. On Wednesday night, the Prime Minister said that Jamaica has not yet experienced the "worst of what could possibly happen."
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Check out more news and information on Hurricane Beryl in Science Times.