Hurricane Beryl becomes the earliest Category 5 on record
The storm shattered records for early-season intensity, tearing through the Caribbean before striking Texas.
Hurricane Beryl roared across the Caribbean and into the Gulf of Mexico this July, shattering records by becoming the earliest Category 5 hurricane ever recorded in the Atlantic and offering an ominous opening to the season.
Beryl intensified with astonishing speed over waters that were extraordinarily warm for so early in the year, reaching the top of the hurricane scale in early July, weeks before such powerful storms typically form. It tore through the southeastern Caribbean, devastating islands in the Grenadines, before continuing westward.
The storm eventually made landfall on the Texas coast as a weaker but still dangerous hurricane, bringing damaging winds, flooding and a storm surge, and knocking out power to millions of customers in and around Houston for days during oppressive summer heat, a dangerous combination.
Beryl's record-breaking early intensity was widely seen as a warning sign. Forecasters had predicted a hyperactive season, driven in part by ocean temperatures running far above normal, and Beryl's rapid strengthening so early in the year was a vivid demonstration of how much fuel was available.
Scientists pointed to the storm as emblematic of a warming climate's influence on hurricanes: not necessarily more storms overall, but a greater tendency for storms to intensify rapidly and reach extreme strength. Beryl's record-setting rampage set an ominous tone for the months of hurricane season that lay ahead.