Hurricane Beryl hits Barbados as a Category 3 storm, passing Jamaica on its way; Tropical Storm Chris begins moving toward Mexico

Hurricane Beryl became the first major hurricane of the season on Sunday, reaching Category 4 strength, then downgrading to 120 mph early Monday morning, making it a Category 3 storm as it approaches the Caribbean.

However, Beryl is bringing “life-threatening winds and storm surge” of up to 6 to 9 feet and 3 to 6 inches of rain across Barbados and the Windward Islands as it approaches the far eastern Caribbean Sea early Monday, according to the national agency. Hurricane Center.

It is expected to maintain its status as a major hurricane as it sweeps across the Caribbean Sea.

Jamaica, Belize and parts of Mexico were within Beryl’s cone on Sunday.

At 2 a.m. Monday, Hurricane Beryl was 110 miles southeast of Barbados and 165 miles east-southeast of Grenada, moving west at 20 mph.

Hurricane winds extend outward up to 30 miles from Beryl’s center and tropical storm force winds extend outward up to 115 miles.

A hurricane warning is in effect for Barbados, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and Tobago, the Grenadines and Grenada, while a tropical storm warning is in effect for Martinique. A tropical storm warning is also in effect for Dominica, Trinidad and the Dominican Republic from Punta Palenque west to the border with Haiti and the entire southern coast of Haiti from the Dominican Republic border to Anse de Hainaut.

“The development over this eastern Atlantic Ocean in late June is unusual,” said meteorologists at the Hurricane Center. “In fact, only a handful of storms have formed over the central or eastern tropical Atlantic Ocean this early in the year in history.”

Beryl is expected to remain a major hurricane for the next five days, forecasters said Sunday, though it is not expected to impact South Florida.

Meanwhile, Tropical Storm Chris was 75 miles southeast of Tuxpan, Mexico, Monday at 2 a.m. and had begun moving inland.

Forecasters also said the tropical wave in the eastern Atlantic off the coast of Africa could become a tropical depression by midweek as it moves toward the eastern and central Caribbean.