Hurricane Beryl reaches category 5 and continues to move towards the Gulf of Mexico.

Hurricane Beryl has reached category 5 (the highest on the Saffir-Simpson scale, with winds over 250 km/h) and continues its advance towards the Gulf of Mexico at a speed of 35 km/h.

The National Hurricane Center (NHC) forecasted that Beryl will continue to move quickly toward the west-northwest over the next two days and then turn west on Thursday.

The forecasted trajectory indicates that the center of Beryl will move quickly across the southeast and central Caribbean Sea throughout today and tomorrow. Jamaica and the Cayman Islands are on alert, and on Thursday, they could be affected by the passage of the powerful hurricane.

Beryl reaches category 5 and intensifies in the southeast of the Caribbean. It is expected to bring potentially deadly winds and storm surges to Jamaica later this week," the NHC said in X.

With maximum sustained winds of 270 km/h and stronger gusts, it is still expected to intensify throughout the day. However, the NHC considers it likely that it will begin to weaken by Tuesday afternoon.

As the storm passes through Jamaica (on Wednesday) and the Cayman Islands (on Thursday), further weakening is expected. Alerts for high waves and rainfall that could lead to flash floods have been issued in these islands, Puerto Rico, and Hispaniola.

Beryl, which enters the record book as the easternmost hurricane ever formed in the month of June, is exhibiting complex behavior that hampers the forecasting of its trajectory beyond 72 hours. According to the NHC, the intensity forecast for Beryl is also quite uncertain.

Although everything indicates that the hurricane will begin to weaken on Tuesday afternoon, and will continue to lose strength as it interacts with elevated terrain in Jamaica, forecast models indicate that it may evolve into a strong tropical storm or a major hurricane as it approaches the Yucatan Peninsula.

In that sense, the NHC predicts that Beryl will continue to be a powerful hurricane as it moves through the Caribbean Sea by the end of this week, which is why there is a hurricane warning for Jamaica and the Cayman Islands. In addition, there is a tropical storm warning for the southern coast of Hispaniola.