BASSETERRE, St. Kitts, Jul. 06.2018 – THE first hurricane in the Tropical Atlantic has formed and it is expected to strengthen sometime today, but meteorologists believe that it might weaken by the weekend.
In their morning update on Hurricane Beryl, meteorologists at the National Hurricane Center (NHC) said the center of the hurricane was located near latitude 10.6 North, longitude 45.1 West.
Beryl is said to be moving towards the west near 14 mph (22 km/h). A faster west-northwestward motion is expected through the weekend. On the forecast track, the center of Beryl will remain east of the Lesser Antilles through early Sunday.
According to the NHC, satellite data indicates the maximum sustained winds have increased to near 75 mph (120 km/h) with higher gusts. Some additional strengthening is forecast today. Beryl is forecast to quickly weaken by late Saturday and become a tropical storm or degenerate into a strong open trough near the Lesser Antilles late Sunday or Monday.
Beryl is a very compact hurricane. Hurricane-force winds extend outward up to 10 miles (20 km) from the center and tropical-storm-force winds extend outward up to 35 miles (55 km).
The estimated minimum central pressure is 995 mb (29.39 inches).
