Hurricane Beryl tracker: Category 4 storm updates; latest projected path map
FOX 26 Houston Weather Forecast
FOX 26 continues to monitor Hurricane Beryl. It became a CAT 5 overnight, making it the earliest to reach that strength on record in the Atlantic. Beryl will be a CAT 3 as it reaches Jamaica mid-week and will weaken to a Tropical Storm in the Gulf of Mexico this weekend.
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Dangerous, record-breaking Hurricane Beryl is roaring through the Caribbean.
Beryl, the earliest hurricane to reach Category 5 strength on record in the Atlantic, weakened to a Category 4 on Tuesday afternoon.
RELATED: Hurricane Beryl becomes Category 5 storm
As of 1 p.m. CT, Beryl had maximum sustained winds of 155 mph and was moving west-northwest at 22 mph. It was located about 175 miles southeast of Isla Beata in the Dominican Republic.
According to the National Hurricane Center, Beryl is expected to move across the southeastern and central Caribbean on Tuesday. Weakening is expected.
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Beryl will be a Category 3 hurricane as it reaches Jamaica mid-week and will weaken to a tropical storm in the Gulf of Mexico this weekend.
We're keeping an eye on where it will go from there. Stay up-to-date on the latest by downloading the free FOX Local app or the FOX 26 Weather app.
Hurricane Beryl makes landfall on Carriacou
On Monday, Beryl made landfall on the island of Carriacou in Grenada as the earliest Category 4 storm in the Atlantic.
Grenada’s Prime Minister Dickon Mitchell said one person had died, and he could not yet say if there were other fatalities because authorities had not been able to assess the situation on the islands of Carriacou and Petite Martinique, where there were initial reports of major damage but communications were largely down.
Beryl's strength may fluctuate slightly in the coming days, but it is projected to pose significant risks to Jamaica on Wednesday and the Cayman Islands by Wednesday night and into Thursday.
Historic Hurricane Beryl
Beryl strengthened from a tropical depression to a major hurricane in just 42 hours, which only six other Atlantic hurricanes have done, with Sept. 1 as the previous earliest date, according to hurricane expert Sam Lillo.
It also was the earliest Category 4 Atlantic hurricane, besting Hurricane Dennis, which became a Category 4 storm on July 8, 2005. Beryl later became the earliest Category 5 observed in the Atlantic basin on record, and only the second Category 5 hurricane in July after Hurricane Emily in 2005, the National Hurricane Center said.
Beryl also marked the farthest east that a hurricane has formed in the tropical Atlantic in June, breaking a record set in 1933, according to Philip Klotzbach, Colorado State University hurricane researcher.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.