Warming up as the Creator of Climate Change? A Key Account of Hurricane Beryl, a tropical depression before the 2024 Caribbean hurricane forecast

As the climate warms, we should be expecting more storms to intensify according to a University of South Florida professor. While many climate models suggest that storms will get stronger more quickly as the Earth warms up, it is still unclear if that is already happening. The relationship between a hotter planet and the number and timing of storms that rapidly gain strength is still an active area of research.

It was a tropical depression when it became a major Hurricane just 48 hours before it was set to make a landfall.

Hurricane Beryl is tearing across the Caribbean this week, unleashing life-threatening flooding and dangerous wind as it heads toward Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula.

It’s clear that greenhouse gas emissions are making ocean temperatures rise, and that hot ocean water early in the summer can make dangerous storms more likely. The 2024 hurricane forecast calls for the most storms ever predicted, largely due to record-breaking ocean temperatures.

It is right in line with what we expect when we warm the planet and our oceans, as per the science.

But climate change may be altering those patterns, perhaps because the ocean has absorbed so much of the excess heat trapped by human greenhouse gas emissions.

Tom Knutson, a senior scientist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, said that there was no clear picture of the relationship between warming and rapid intensification. We’re not sure whether there is one emerging or not.

A hurricane strengthens back into category 3 storm as it nears Mexico: Witnesses in Kingston, Puerto Allen, Mahahual and Punta Allen

Some 1,432 people remained in shelters in Jamaica, like Desrine Campbell, a resident of the low-lying community of Old Harbour Bay, who wailed, “My house is almost flooded!”

Sixty percent of the island remained without electricity, along with a lack of water and limited telecommunications. The lack of communication hampered the damage assessment by government officials, who had to figure out how to get through to people in the south.

Authorities confirmed a young man died on Wednesday after he was swept into a storm water drain while trying to retrieve a ball. A woman died after a house collapsed.

The damage appeared to be behind it. On Wednesday afternoon, Jamaica’s south coast brushed by its eye wall while trees and telephone poles blocked the roads in Kingston on Thursday morning.

Velázquez said temporary storm shelters were in place at schools and hotels but efforts to evacuate a few highly exposed villages — like Punta Allen, which sits on a narrow spit of land south of Tulum — and Mahahual, further south — had been only partially successful.

The storm was expected to make a second hit in northeast Mexico before crossing the peninsula and entering the Gulf of Mexico.

Source: Hurricane Beryl strengthens back into a Category 3 storm as it nears Mexico

The Dallas, Texas, vacationer whose sandwich was left outside the beach told reporters that the storm had been moving eastwards towards the Yucatan Peninsula

Myriam Setra, a 34-year-old tourist from Dallas, Texas was having a sandwich on the beach earlier Thursday, saying “figured we’d get the last of the sun in today, too. And then it’s just going to be hunker down and just stay indoors until hopefully it passes.”

Tourists were also taking precautions. The therapist from Idaho said she woke up this morning and put all of her empty bottles in the freezer so they could flush the toilet.

“We’ve cut the gas and electricity. We also have an emergency floor where two maintenance employees will be locking down,” he said from the hotel. “We have them staying in the room farthest from the beach and windows.”

All of the guests at the hotel had left, said Francisco Bencomo. He said there were no plans to have guests return before July 10th because of the conditions.

In Playa del Carmen, most businesses were closed Thursday and some of them were boarded up, as tourists and locals walked their dogs. Authorities shut down and emptied the beachfront hotels in Tulum.

Mexico’s popular Caribbean coast prepared shelters, evacuated some small outlying coastal communities and even moved sea turtle eggs off beaches threatened by storm surge.

As the wind began gusting over Tulum’s white sand beaches on Thursday afternoon, four-wheelers with megaphones rolled along the sand telling people to leave. Tourists snapped photos of the growing surf, but military personnel urged them to leave as Beryl headed to an expected landfall around Tulum early Friday.

The storm’s center was about 135 miles (220 kilometers) east-southeast of Tulum, Mexico, and was moving west-northwest at 16 mph (about 26 kph), the hurricane center said.

Jack Beven, senior hurricane specialist at the U.S. Hurricane Center, said “the biggest immediate threat now that the storm is moving away from the Cayman Islands is landfall in the Yucatan Peninsula.”

“It is recommendable that people get to higher ground, shelters or the homes of friends or family elsewhere,” López Obrador wrote. “Don’t hesitate, material possessions can be replaced.”

Source: Hurricane Beryl strengthens back into a Category 3 storm as it nears Mexico

The Cayman Islands’ First Hurricane: Hurricane Beryl has Strengthens Back into a Category 3-Mexico Storm, and it is not the First Tornado to Be Hit by an Atlantic Hurricane

The president said that the small town of Tulum may be the next to be hit by a direct hit.

The U.S. National Hurricane Center said Beryl, which was the earliest Category 5 hurricane in the Atlantic, now had winds of 115 mph (185 kph ) after weakening earlier Thursday.

Nearby, Carlton Golding said ruefully, “I lost everything this time.” Golding’s house was completely destroyed by the Hurricane, the second time he has experienced damage from storms.

In the south-central parish of Clarendon, residents attempted to mend damaged roofs and clear downed trees. Many roads remained partially blocked due to downed electricity and telecommunication poles.

The premier of the Cayman Islands, Juliana O’Connor, thanked residents and visitors Thursday for contributing to the “collective calm” ahead of Beryl by following storm protocols.

According to the St.Vincent and Grenadines head of the National Emergency Management Organization, most of Mayreau and Union Island have been damaged by Hurricane Beryl.

Officials said that three people were killed in Grenada, Carriacou, and St.Vincent and the Grenadines. Four people were missing in northern Venezuela, and three other deaths were reported there.

Source: Hurricane Beryl strengthens back into a Category 3 storm as it nears Mexico

Tropical Storm Aletta Is Born and Set to Float in the Pacific Ocean, and Forecasted to Be Dissipative by the Weekend

The US National Hurricane Center said on Thursday that Tropical Storm Aletta had formed in the Pacific Ocean. Aletta, which was located about 190 miles (310 kilometers) from Manzanillo and had maximum sustained winds of 40 mph (65 kph), was forecast to head away from land and dissipate by the weekend.