“The climate crisis is here. This is an emergency. Politicians need to start acting like it.”
By Jon Queally. Published 6-30-2024 by Common Dreams
Meteorologists, climate campaigners, and extreme weather experts expressed shock and horror Sunday as Hurricane Beryl exploded into an “extremely dangerous” Category 4 storm as it headed into the warm waters of the southern Caribbean with a level of intensification characterized as unprecedented.
The National Hurricane Center on Sunday morning called it a “very dangerous situation” due to “potentially catastrophic hurricane-force winds, a life-threatening storm surge, and damaging waves” for the numerous mainland and island nations in Beryl’s path.
According to the NHC, the Windward Islands of St. Vincent, the Grenadines, and Granada will be the first at highest risk from the storm as well as St. Lucia and Barbados. People on those islands and elsewhere in the region were told that all preparations for the storm “should be rushed to completion” without delay.
Weather Underground reports that subsequent locations that may face Beryl’s wrath later this week could be Jamaica, the Cayman Islands, Belize and Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula, though noted “there’s uncertainty in that exact track” of the hurricane as detailed in the following graphic:
Citing records going back to 1851, the Washington Post reported Sunday that there “is no precedent for a storm to intensify this quickly, nor reach this strength, in this part of the ocean during the month of June.”
Holy moly. Category 4 already?! #Beryl would be virtually unprecedented there in September, much less June. Extremely dangerous situation still unfolding… precautions in the southern Windwards are indeed life-saving today! 😳 pic.twitter.com/EeSo8pKgRQ
— Eric Blake 🌀 (@EricBlake12) June 30, 2024
Eric Blake, a hurricane expert, said that Beryl on Sunday was “rewriting the history books in all the wrong ways,” as he urged people in its path to “be very safe and take this hurricane seriously” as “very few will have experienced a hurricane this strong” on those islands.
Sea surface temperatures along Hurricane Beryl's track are running at record or near record levels for the week, with a deep reservoir of ocean fuel. Waters are as hot as they are typically are in late August and September, no doubt a big player in Beryl's record June intensity. pic.twitter.com/okqadNCipd
— Michael Lowry (@MichaelRLowry) June 30, 2024
“This is unreal,” said Nahel Belgherze, a journalist focused on extreme weather. “Hurricane Beryl continues to defy all known logic, now becoming the first June Category 4 hurricane ever recorded in the Atlantic Basin. I can’t even stress enough just how completely absurd that storm is.”
“The climate crisis is here,” said the Sunrise Movement in a social media post showing the extreme power and historic nature of Hurricane Beryl. “This is an emergency. Politicians need to start acting like it.”
The group took the opportunity to re-share its petition calling on President Joe Biden to “declare a climate emergency” as a way to unlock federal funds and escalate the government’s response to the crisis of fossil fuels that are the main driving of surging global temperatures.
As hurricane Beryl rapidly intensifies & barrels towards the Caribbean, I urge my Caribbean brothers & sisters to be prepared & take all precautions.
— Selwin Hart (@SelwinHart) June 30, 2024
The poor and vulnerable must be protected. We’re still in June, I’m exhausted using “unprecedented” to describe climate extremes https://t.co/2wRYwUoCV3
In May, the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) predicted that the 2024 hurricane season—which officially runs from June 1 to the end of November—would be “extraordinary” and “above-normal,” largely due to rising ocean temperatures attributable to human-caused global warming couple with La Niña conditions.
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