Hurricane Beryl: A record-setting and deadly storm [Video]

The 2024 Atlantic hurricane season has been off to a rare and dangerous start.

Hurricane Beryl is the earliest Category 4 and Category 5 hurricane on record for the Atlantic, developing as a result of primed conditions that favour a very active hurricane season. Those conditions include record setting warmth in the tropical Atlantic waters and a favourable wind environment.

“The current conditions in the tropical Atlantic are more akin to something we’d expect during the typical peak of hurricane season in September,” says Bob Robichaud, warning preparedness meteorologist with the Canada Hurricane Centre.

“This has been a building situation in the Atlantic with record-setting water temperatures extending as far back as the winter before last.”

Only about two per cent of the major hurricanes on record in the Atlantic have occurred in the month of July, giving context to how statistically rare it is have a major storm this …