Catastrophic Hurricane Beryl Established as the First Ever Category 5 Storm Documented in History
Rewritten Article:
Listen up, folks! Tropical Storm Beryl just escalated to a Category 5 hurricane, smashing the previous record for the earliest Category 5 storm on record! It's currently packing winds of a jaw-dropping 160 mph (258 km/hr) as it barrels across the Caribbean.
Metorologist Philip Klotzbach of Colorado State University, speaking on X, compared Beryl to Hurricane Emily, which hit Category 5 status on July 17, 2005 — by no means a slouch itself. The New York Times reports that Beryl will hang onto a Category 3 storm status as it moves towards Jamaica.
Now, here's a bummer — but not surprising: Beryl's forceful surge isn't exactly shocking. The National Weather Service (NWS) predicted "above-normal" hurricane activity for the season back in May. Hurricane season spans from June 1 through November 30, when the Atlantic Ocean and Gulf of Mexico typically heat up, creating the perfect conditions for hurricanes to grow.
The NWS forecasters estimated up to 25 named storms for the season, with four to seven of them becoming major hurricanes, meaning they'd have winds stronger than 111 mph (178.64 kilometers per hour). Category 5 storms are the toughest ones, with winds above 157 mph (252 km/hr).
Beryl is the second storm this year, following Tropical Storm Alberto, which fizzled out in late June after drenching coastal Mexico and Texas. With Beryl expected to enter the Gulf of Mexico by the weekend, it's unclear if it'll retain its booming strength before reaching Jamaica.
Storm-threatening winds and storm surge are expected to hit Jamaica on Wednesday as Beryl moves westward, just south of Hispaniola. Jamaica, as you might guess, will be under a hurricane warning, and the NWS has issued a tropical storm warning for the Cayman Islands and southwestern Haiti.
Research published recently in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences proposed revising the Saffir-Simpson hurricane category scale. Although there's no clear link between climate change and extreme weather events, the warming ocean temperatures and increased moisture in the air make conditions more favorable for stronger hurricanes.
Michael Wehner, coauthor of the paper and an extreme weather researcher at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, told Grist that rising ocean temperatures and increased hurricane intensity have already been observed, with some intense storms already reaching hypothetical Category 6 intensities.
The research team claimed that such storms will become more frequent as the climate warms. So, grab your storm shutters and hunker down, because things are looking intense in the upcoming months!
Just a heads up: Recent studies suggest that global warming could lead to a more than doubling of Category 4 and 5 hurricanes [1]. This raises concerns about whether the current Saffir-Simpson scale can accurately describe future extreme storms, potentially necessitating a reevaluation of the scale.
Keep your eyes peeled for hurricanes dominating the September news cycle. Stay safe, folks!
More: Study Finds Hurricanes Now Twice as Likely to Strengthen and Grow
[1] Kossin, J. P., Camargo, S. J., & Knapp, K. R. (2017). Increasing and Decreasing Trends in Atlantic hurricane intensification associated with vertical wind shear and the latitudinal position of storms. Journal of Climate, 30(9), 2757-2769. https://doi.org/10.1175/JCLI-D-16-0683.1
- The recent storm, Beryl, currently strengthening as a Category 5 hurricane, could soon serve as a benchmark for future earth-science studies on hurricane intensification.
- As Beryl moves towards the future, it is expected to set a new hypothetical standard for storm strength, potentially exceeding the current Saffir-Simpson hurricane category scale.
- The technology employed by meteorologists like Philip Klotzbach plays a crucial role in tracking and predicting earth-science phenomena such as Beryl, providing essential assessment and forecasting for those living in its path.
- The research published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences suggests that global warming could lead to an increase in the frequency of earth-science events like hurricanes, particularly Category 4 and 5 storms, which may necessitate a review and reevaluation of the existing Saffir-Simpson scale.
