The US National Hurricane Center said Beryl has become a potentially catastrophic Category 5 hurricane in the eastern Caribbean.

It is expected to bring life-threatening winds and storm surges to Jamaica later this week before continuing on to Mexico.

Rapid strengthening Beryl marks an unusually strong and early start to this year’s Atlantic hurricane season, making it the earliest Category 4 cyclone on record.

Scientists interviewed by Reuters see powerful hurricane as harbinger of season unusually active hurricanespossible scenario due to record temperatures in the Atlantic Ocean.

“Climate change is creating conditions for stronger hurricanes to form,” said Christopher Rosoff, a scientist at the U.S. National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado.

Andra Garner, a meteorologist in New Jersey, noted that Beryl The Category 1 storm weakened to a Category 4 in less than 10 hours.

Regional authorities were trying to prepare residents for the worst, including St. Vincent and the Grenadines Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves, who expected the disaster to last for days.

“We must wait for this monster to come out,” he said in an address to the nation.

In the capital Kingstown, conditions around the main port worsened on Monday morning, with some damage to buildings reported due to stronger winds.

Video from the city shows waves crashing against the promenade and palm trees swaying in the wind on the shore.

During the day, Beryl The maximum sustained wind reached 24 points.1 kilometers per hour (km/h), with some even stronger gusts, and was about 105 kilometers to northwest from Granada.

The storm was moving west-northwest at 32 kilometers per hour and was expected to cross many of the most populated islands in the central Caribbean by Wednesday, on a path that will take it to the Gulf of Mexico, CNH added.

The core of the hurricane is likely to cause “potentially catastrophic wind damage” as it passes through parts of the Windward Islands, with St. Vincent and the Grenadines and Grenada among the areas most at risk.

Hurricane warnings were in effect for Barbados, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Grenada and Tobago. A tropical storm warning was issued for Martinique and Trinidad, and a gale warning was issued for parts of the Dominican Republic and parts of Haiti. (Reuters)