Hurricane Beryl, first of 2024 season, bears down on Caribbean

Much of the southeast Caribbean was on alert Sunday as Beryl strengthened into the first hurricane of the 2024 Atlantic season, with forecasters warning it will swiftly become a major storm.

The U.S. National Hurricane Center (NHC) said Beryl — currently churning in the Atlantic Ocean about 530 miles (850 kilometers) east of Barbados — was expected to bring "life-threatening winds and storm surge" when it reached the Windward Islands early Monday.

Warning the storm was "getting stronger", the NHC forecast it would become a "dangerous major hurricane" by the time it hit Caribbean communities.

Barbados, St Lucia, St Vincent and the Grenadines, and Grenada were all under hurricane warnings, while tropical storm warnings or watches were in effect for Martinique, Tobago and Dominica, the NHC said in its latest advisory.

Cars were seen lined up at gas stations in the Barbadian capital Bridgetown, while supermarkets and grocery stores were crowded with shoppers buying food, water and other supplies. Some households were already boarding up their properties.

A major hurricane is considered a Category 3 or higher on the Saffir-Simpson scale, with winds of at least 111 miles per hour (179 kilometers per hour).

Such a powerful storm forming this early in the Atlantic hurricane season — which runs from early June to late November — is extremely rare, experts said.

"Only five major (Category 3+) hurricanes have been recorded in the Atlantic before the first week of July. Beryl would be the sixth and earliest this far east in the tropical Atlantic," hurricane expert Michael Lowry posted on social media platform X.

The NHC said that as of 2:00 am (06:00 GMT) Sunday, Beryl's maximum sustained winds had increased to nearly 90...