Tropical Storm Beryl has formed in the Atlantic Ocean and could strengthen into the year’s first hurricane before it reaches the Caribbean Sea early next week.

The Meteorological Service of Barbados issued a hurricane watch for Barbados early Saturday morning.

Beryl is the second named storm in what is predicted to be a busy hurricane season, which runs from June 1 to November 30 in the Atlantic.

STATEMENT # 8 ON TROPICAL STORM BERYL – A HURRICANE WATCH IS IN EFFECT FOR BARBADOS Tropical Storm Beryl is expected to become a hurricane before reaching Barbados late Sunday night and hence the Barbados Meteorological Services has issued a Hurricane Watch for Barbados. pic.twitter.com/ujF1iCuerd

— BarbadosMetServices (@BarbadosMet) June 29, 2024

Earlier this month, Tropical Storm Alberto came ashore in north-east Mexico with heavy rains that resulted in four deaths.

“We need to be ready,” Barbadian Prime Minister Mia Mottley said in a public address late Friday.

“You and I know when these things happen, it is better to plan for the worst and pray for the best.”

She noted that thousands of people are in Barbados for the Twenty20 World Cup cricket final, with India and South Africa playing in the capital, Bridgetown, on Saturday.

Mark Spence, manager of a hostel in Barbados, said in a phone interview that he was calm about the approaching storm.

“It’s the season. You can get a storm any time,” he said. “I’m always prepared. I always have enough food in my house.”

Beryl was moving westwards on Friday, according to the National Hurricane Centre in Miami.

It had top sustained winds of 40mph. A tropical storm is defined by sustained winds between 39mph and 73mph. Winds above that make it a hurricane.

“The development of a tropical storm this far east in the tropical Atlantic is uncommon, though not unprecedented,” wrote Michael Lowry, a Florida-based hurricane expert, in a forecast.

“Only five named storms on record have formed in the tropical Atlantic east of the Caribbean.”

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration predicts that the 2024 hurricane season is likely to be well above average, with between 17 and 25 named storms.

The forecast calls for as many as 13 hurricanes and four major hurricanes.

An average Atlantic hurricane season produces 14 named storms, seven of them hurricanes and three major hurricanes.