HURRICANE Beryl struck islands in the south-east Caribbean today, with storm surges nine feet high predicted and governments warning people to take shelter.

“It’s going to be terrible,” St Vincent & the Grenadines Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves said, urging that citizens stay at home and “wait this monster out.”

The category 4 storm, with wind speeds of over 130mph, is the earliest of its strength in Atlantic history, deriving its power from record warm waters — hotter now than they usually would be at the height of hurricane season in September after a summer of warming, hurricane specialist Michael Lowry said.

It is forecast to remain at hurricane strength throughout its course through the Caribbean, with hurricane and tropical storm warnings issued for multiple islands in the region including the entire south coast of Haiti and much of the Dominican Republic.

It strengthened from a tropical depression to a major hurricane in just 42 hours, an occurrence that’s taken place only six other times in Atlantic hurricane history, and with September 1 as the earliest date, fellow expert Sam Lillo said.

No hurricane so severe has hit the south-east Caribbean for 20 years, when Hurricane Ivan killed dozens of people in Grenada. 

The US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration predicts the 2024 hurricane season is likely to be well above average, with between 17 and 25 named storms.

The forecast predicts as many as 13 hurricanes and four major hurricanes (category 3 and above).

An average Atlantic hurricane season produces 14 named storms, seven of them hurricanes and three major hurricanes.