Hurricane Beryl Is a Worrisome Manifestation of Climate Change, Experts Say

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Hurricane Beryl has straddled Category 4 and Category 5 storm status as it’s ripped through the Caribbean, shocking meteorologists. With the storm threading the sea this afternoon and racing toward Jamaica, climate experts are warning that Hurricane Beryl is a concerning manifestation of climate change—and so are the conditions that allowed it to take shape.

To start, storms of the Beryl variety don’t typically form until around August; although the Atlantic hurricane season technically starts on June 1, we don’t often see major storms until summer is well underway. That alone gives Beryl a bit of a shock factor, as does the danger the storm actively poses to island communities in the Caribbean. As of writing, Beryl has claimed at least six lives in Grenada, Venezuela, and St. Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG). Island nations are also reckoning with destroyed infrastructure, including unsafe roads and downed power lines. 

From a zoomed-out perspective, though, Hurricane Beryl offers a real-world look at the long-term meteorological effects of climate change. For a storm to transform into a hurricane, it needs to sweep warm air and moisture off the ocean’s surface: The warmer the ocean, the easier it is for a hurricane to form. The Atlantic Ocean isn’t typically warm enough to offer ideal hurricane conditions until later in the season. But thanks to record-high ocean temperatures, Beryl got a head start.

Hurricane Beryl map as of July 2, 2024.
Credit: Google

“It’s startling because it’s not something we’ve seen before, but in terms of the science, it’s unfortunately kind of right in line with what we expect when we’re warming the planet,” Dr. Andra Garner, a climate scientist at Rowan University, told NPR’s climate correspondents Tuesday. 

Indeed, Yale Climate Connections predicted in May that the Atlantic’s unusually high temperatures—which, at the time, were already breaking late-May heat records—could “fuel an unusually active hurricane season.” Less than two months later, we’re seeing that forecast become reality. Scientists have been wringing their hands over climate change-induced tropical cyclones for years, though: In 2021, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released a report outlining projected increases in tropical cyclone rainfall rates, tropical cyclone intensities, and the global proportion of tropical cyclones that reach Category 4 and 5 status. 

As far as alarms go, Beryl couldn’t be louder: Not only did climate change hand Beryl its start, but it allowed the hurricane to hit Category 5 earlier than any other hurricane in Atlantic history. Elected officials in Caribbean communities are doing what they can to ensure the alarm is heard. 

“For the major emitters of greenhouse gasses, those who contribute most to global warming, you are getting a lot of talking, but you are not [doing] a lot of action,” SVG prime minister Ralph Gonsalves said Monday, referring to climate change conferences and governmental inaction in the Global North. “I am hopeful that what is happening—and we are quite early in the hurricane season—will alert them to our vulnerabilities, our weaknesses and encourage them to honor the commitments they have made on a range of issues, from the Paris Accord to the current time.”