Hurricane Beryl Hits Jamaica After Leaving at Least 7 Dead

0:00

/1861

1×

Facts

• Hurricane Beryl hit Jamaica on Wednesday as a Category 4 storm, with heavy rains and 145 mph (233 kph) winds reportedly knocking down power lines in the country that has been declared a disaster area and is now under a curfew.¹
• The official death toll from the hurricane that has ripped through the Caribbean this week is now at seven, with reported deaths in Grenada, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, and Venezuela.²
• This comes as Beryl made landfall on Monday on the island of Carriacou, Grenada, with a weather station at an airport in the Caribbean nation reporting sustained winds at 92 mph (148 km/hr) and gusts over 120 mph (193 km/hr).³
• Beryl is the earliest storm on record to develop into a Category 5 Atlantic hurricane — and just the second in July, according to the National Hurricane Center. It is also the earliest Category 4 Atlantic hurricane — and the only one in June.⁴
• According to AccuWeather meteorologists, Beryl is expected to pass just south of the Cayman Islands as a Category 3 storm on Thursday and to make landfall in Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula by Friday as a Category 2 hurricane.⁵
• It's still unclear whether Beryl will head north to Texas or westward back to Mexico once it gets to the Gulf. A better forecast is expected after the storm passes Jamaica.⁶

Sources: ¹Independent, ²BBC News, ³The Weather Channel, ⁴CNN, ⁵Accuweather and ⁶FOX Weather.

Narratives

• Narrative A, as provided by NBC 6 South Florida. Climate change is believed to have played a role in Hurricane Beryl becoming the earliest Category 4 Atlantic hurricane on record. With last year being the hottest on record, ocean temperatures are reaching new highs every day, resulting in stronger and more dangerous storms occurring at times earlier than usual.
• Narrative B, as provided by Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. It's easy to blame any strong hurricane on climate change, but in reality, they're usually influenced by a myriad of factors that have nothing to do with global warming. More research is needed before we can establish any direct causal link between the two.