Hurricane Beryl: A Harbinger of Things to Come?

By now we’ve all become aware of Hurricane Beryl, which left a trail of death and destruction in its wake during the past week stretching from the Southern Caribbean to Texas as it set records for the strongest-ever hurricane — a Category 5 — this early in the season.

Beryl grew — and maintained — its ferocity thanks to the warmest-ever sea surface temperatures for June in the Atlantic. Warm ocean waters are the jet fuel for hurricanes and in the case of Beryl, provided the key ingredient for Beryl’s rapid intensification and re-intensification as it traveled over thousands of miles of ocean.

Hurricane forecasters in April issued a forecast for an extremely active hurricane season and Beryl’s record-setting run appears to be only a prelude to what may be in store for those of us who live along the coast in the coming months.

As we have noted in the past, there is no escape anywhere in the world from the effects of climate change. We can only hope that our little corner of the globe will luck out for another year and we’ll escape the wrath of the worst that Mother Nature can throw at us.