KALAIN HO­SEIN

Me­te­o­rol­o­gist/Re­porter

kalain.ho­sein@guardian.co.tt

To­ba­go is now un­der a Hur­ri­cane Warn­ing un­til noon Mon­day, with the Trinidad and To­ba­go Me­te­o­ro­log­i­cal Ser­vice (TTMS) up­grad­ing the or­ange-lev­el Trop­i­cal Storm Warn­ing to a or­ange-lev­el Hur­ri­cane Warn­ing on Sun­day morn­ing, due to the ap­proach of Hur­ri­cane Beryl.

The Met Of­fice ex­plained:

“This means there is a high­er po­ten­tial for hur­ri­cane con­di­tions, in­clud­ing sus­tained winds in ex­cess of 100 km/h, with­in the warn­ing area, with­in the next 30 hours. As of 8 am to­day, Hur­ri­cane Beryl was lo­cat­ed near 10.6°N 53.9°W, ap­prox­i­mate­ly 740km E of To­ba­go, mov­ing west­ward near 33 km/h.”

They add:

“At this time, the sys­tem pos­es no di­rect threat to Trinidad, as the prob­a­bil­i­ty for Trop­i­cal Storm con­di­tions is low (10-25%).”

An image showing the extent of the orange level hurricane warning for Tobago. [Image courtesy Met Service]

Ac­cord­ing to the TTMS on Sun­day morn­ing:

"As Beryl ap­proach­es the south­ern Wind­wards on Mon­day, there is a high chance (60-80%) of hur­ri­cane force winds im­pact­ing To­ba­go. Heavy show­ers and thun­der­storms are like­ly from Mon­day, and sea con­di­tions can be­come chop­py and rough. The next up­date will be at 11 am to­day (Sun­day 30th June 2024) or ear­li­er if nec­es­sary.”

The Met Of­fice is ad­vis­ing To­ba­go of the fol­low­ing:

“Take im­me­di­ate ac­tions to pro­tect their lives, liveli­hoods, and prop­er­ty. Shel­ter in place or evac­u­ate to a safe lo­ca­tion if your home is un­safe or vul­ner­a­ble to flood­ing or wind dam­age. Se­cure food, wa­ter and med­i­cine for at least 7 days in wa­ter­proof con­tain­ers. Out­door drains should be clear and loose ob­jects se­cured by now. Sand­bags should be near all en­trances to your home. Mon­i­tor of­fi­cial news sources.”

Max­i­mum sus­tained winds have in­creased to near 185 km/h with high­er gusts, mak­ing Beryl a Cat­e­go­ry 3 Hur­ri­cane. Con­tin­ued rapid strength­en­ing is fore­cast over the next day or so, and Beryl is ex­pect­ed to be­come an ex­treme­ly dan­ger­ous cat­e­go­ry 4 hur­ri­cane be­fore it reach­es the Wind­ward Is­lands.

The Met Of­fice says:

“The ini­tial out­look for Trinidad and To­ba­go is for cloudy to over­cast skies with show­ers and medi­um chance (Trinidad) to high chance (To­ba­go) of heavy show­ers/thun­der­storm ac­tiv­i­ty by Mon­day 1st Ju­ly 2024. Sea con­di­tions are ex­pect­ed to be­come rough from ear­ly Mon­day morn­ing, as Beryl moves across the Wind­ward Is­lands.”

A Hur­ri­cane Warn­ing is in ef­fect for the fol­low­ing is­lands: Bar­ba­dos, St. Lu­cia, St. Vin­cent and the Grenadines and Grena­da and its de­pen­den­cies and To­ba­go.

A Trop­i­cal Storm Warn­ing is in ef­fect for Mar­tinique.

A Trop­i­cal Storm Watch is in ef­fect for Do­mini­ca.