Hurricane Beryl would hit Cuba with tropical storm force winds.

Despite forecasts predicting that the eye of Hurricane Beryl will pass well away from Cuban territory, the island will be in the so-called "dirty side" of the powerful meteorological phenomenon, that is, the strongest in terms of winds and rains.

According to the forecast from the National Hurricane Center (NHC), from early Wednesday morning until Thursday, some areas of the country may experience winds of up to 63 km/h in gusts.

An image provided by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) shows the probabilities of tropical storm force winds in the Caribbean and the Gulf of Mexico over the next five days, from Tuesday, July 2nd to Sunday, the 7th.

According to the forecast, Hurricane Beryl will move through the Caribbean with strong winds along its path. The projection indicates that Cuba will be among the affected areas, although wind speeds will not exceed 63 km/h (39 mph) in the northern part of the country, and will be slightly stronger in the south, the area shaded in a lighter shade of green in the image.

While the models' projections show consensus in indicating that Hurricane Beryl will impact the Yucatán Peninsula on Friday, the Forecast Center of the Meteorological Institute (INSMET) has warned that it will maintain a close watch on the evolution of this powerful tropical cyclonic organism as it moves through the seas south of Cuba during Wednesday and Thursday of this week.

Hurricane Beryl, currently a category 5, continues to advance and is expected to bring dangerous winds and storm surge to Jamaica on Wednesday.

At 8:00 AM AST (12:00 UTC), the eye of Hurricane Beryl was located about 485 km southeast of Isla Beata, Dominican Republic, and 1005 km from Kingston, Jamaica.

The maximum sustained winds are 270 km/h, with movement to the west-northwest at 35 km/h.

Currently, there is a hurricane warning in effect for Jamaica, a hurricane watch for Grand Cayman, Little Cayman, and Cayman Brac.

There is also a tropical storm warning for the southern coast of the Dominican Republic from Punta Palenque westward to the border with Haiti, and the southern coast of Haiti from the border with the Dominican Republic to Anse d'Hainault.

Hurricane Beryl reached category five in the early hours of this Tuesday after leaving a trail of destruction in Grenada, Barbados, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, and Saint Lucia, among other islands in the Lesser Antilles.

Images posted on social media attest to the damages left by the meteorological phenomenon in the islands, which have delicate infrastructure, many of them made of wood.

Formed as a tropical depression on the afternoon of Friday, June 28, the cyclonic system has undergone very rapid intensification, as by the night of that same day, it was already a tropical storm, and by Saturday afternoon, a hurricane. In less than 24 hours, it went from category 1 to category 4, something entirely unusual for this time of year.

Beryl is the earliest Category 5 hurricane recorded in the Atlantic cyclone season. It had weakened during its trajectory but regained strength on Monday when it made landfall on the island of Carriacou in Grenada.

This year, it is expected that the hurricane season in the Atlantic will be very active, with the possibility of forming up to 13 hurricanes, of which up to seven could be major hurricanes, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration of the United States (NOAA).