PREVIEW

Astronauts on the International Space station captured this footage of Hurricane Beryl in the Atlantic Ocean on the morning of Monday, 1 July 2024.
Hurricane Beryl has already caused widespread devastation across several Caribbean nations, with at least one confirmed death as it made landfall.
Thousands remain without power or are taking refuge in temporary shelters in St Vincent and the Grenadines, Grenada, and St Lucia.
Upgraded to a Category 5 storm, Hurricane Beryl is currently moving west towards Jamaica and is forecast to hit south-east Mexico by the end of the week. The hurricane first struck Carriacou Island in Grenada, leaving significant destruction in its wake.
Hurricane Beryl intensified from a tropical depression to a major hurricane in just 42 hours one of only six other Atlantic hurricanes to do so. Remarkably, the previous earliest hurricane to achieve this feat was on 1 September. Usually, hurricanes intensify more quickly at the height of the hurricane season in September, when waters in the Atlantic are warmer.
However, the storm drew its unprecedented strength from record warm waters in late June and July, which are currently hotter than typically seen even at the peak of the season.
Beryl has set several records in its rapid escalation. It became the earliest Category 4 Atlantic hurricane, surpassing Hurricane Dennis, which reached Category 4 status on 8 July 20, 05. Beryl later advanced to become the earliest Category 5 hurricane ever observed in the Atlantic basin. It is only the second Category 5 hurricane recorded in July, following Hurricane Emily in 2005, America’s National Hurricane Center reported.