Fasten Your Seat Belts, It's Going to Be a Bumpy Ride

Ocean temperatures, 2005 vs. 2024 So, it's the end of June, and we already have 2 3 named storms including Hurricane Beryl, the earliest category 4 hurricane ever.

I think that there is a good chance that we might end up running out of letters this year, as we did in 2005, when Hurricane Katrine devastated New Orleans:

Hurricane Beryl strengthened into what experts called an “extremely dangerous” category 4 storm as it approaches the south-east Caribbean, which began shutting down Sunday amid urgent pleas from government officials for people to take shelter.

Beryl had strengthened into a category 3 hurricane on Sunday morning, becoming the first major hurricane east of the Lesser Antilles on record for June, according to Philip Klotzbach, Colorado State University hurricane researcher.

It took Beryl only 42 hours to strengthen from a tropical depression to a major hurricane – a feat accomplished only six other times in Atlantic hurricane history, and with 1 September as the earliest date, according to hurricane expert Sam Lillo.

Beryl is now the earliest category 4 Atlantic hurricane on record, besting Hurricane Dennis, which became a category 4 storm on 8 July 2005, hurricane specialist and storm surge expert Michael Lowry said.

………

Following behind it, tropical storm Chris formed near eastern Mexico on Sunday, but will begin to weaken after landfall, the US National Hurricane Center said in an advisory. The storm is expected to produce rainfall totals of 10 to 20cm across portions of eastern Mexico through Monday, the Miami-based forecaster added.


Hurricane Ivan in 2004 was the last strongest hurricane to hit the south-east Caribbean, causing catastrophic damage in Grenada as a category 3 storm.

“So this is a serious threat, a very serious threat,” Lowry said of Beryl.

………

Warm waters were fueling Beryl, with ocean heat content in the deep Atlantic the highest on record for this time of year, according to Brian McNoldy, University of Miami tropical meteorology researcher. Lowry said the waters are now warmer than they would be at the peak of the hurricane season in September.

Beryl marks the farthest east that a hurricane has formed in the tropical Atlantic in June, breaking a record set in 1933, according to Klotzbach.

Clearly, anthropogenic climate change is a myth, amiright?