Beryl, which became the first hurricane of the season on Saturday, became the season’s first major hurricane on Sunday with maximum sustained winds of 115 mph, and its top winds could reach Category 4 status, forecasters said.

As of early Sunday, Beryl was an “extremely dangerous Category 3 hurricane,” according to the latest advisory from the National Hurricane Center.

Sunday’s 5 a.m. advisory marked the fifth successive advisory where Beryl’s windspeed has increased. The steady windspeed increases have come after the hurricane center — saying Beryl was “rapidly intensifying” — had forecast the storm to achieve top wind speeds of 120 mph as it sweeps through the Caribbean Sea.

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Hurricane warnings went up across the eastern Caribbean, as the islands braced for the first hurricane of what’s expected to be an extremely active storm season.

By Wednesday, the storm is expected to encounter unfavorable atmospheric conditions, with high-altitude crosswinds that will weaken it.

At 5 a.m. Sunday, the storm was 420 miles east-southeast of Barbados and moving west at 21 mph.

Hurricane-force winds extend outward up to 15 miles from Beryl’s center and tropical-storm-force winds extend outward up to 80 miles. As of 5 a.m. Sunday, its maximum sustained winds were projected to reach 130 mph i the next 24-36 hours, which would make it a Category 4 hurricane.

A hurricane warning is in effect for Barbados, St. Lucia, St. Vincent, Tobago, and the Grenadine Islands and Grenada, while a tropical storm warning is in effect for Martinique. A tropical storm watch is in effect for Dominica.

“Development this far east in late June is unusual,” the forecasters at the hurricane center said. “In fact, there have only been a few storms in history that have formed over the central or eastern tropical Atlantic this early in the year.”

Beryl is not expected to affect South Florida.

Meanwhile, the hurricane center is tracking two other systems.

A tropical wave in the eastern Atlantic several hundred miles south-southwest of the Cape Verde Islands has become better organized, and has seen its chances of formation over the next 48 hours increase to 40% at 8 a.m., with its seven-day chances remaining at 70%.

“Some slow development of this system is possible next week while it moves generally westward across the central and western tropical Atlantic at 15 to 20 mph,” forecasters said.

Also, a tropical wave that has already been moving across the Caribbean and headed west toward Mexico is producing widespread showers and thunderstorm activity.

“The disturbance is … expected to move westward over the Yucatan Peninsula and emerge over the Bay of Campeche late Saturday or early Sunday, at which point some development will be possible,” forecasters said.

At that point, as the system heads toward central Mexico, it could develop into a tropical depression.

Heavy rainfall is still expected to affect portions of Central America and Mexico through the weekend.

It has a 50% chance of formation in the two to seven days.

The next named storm will be Chris.

The western Gulf of Mexico generated the 2024 season’s first tropical storm last week. Dubbed Alberto, the system made landfall in Mexico 250 miles south of the U.S. border, but sent storm surge and flood to spots 500 miles away in Louisiana.

The 2024 hurricane season, which officially began June 1, is expected to be extremely active.

In its annual May outlook, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said that the 2024 hurricane season has an 85% chance of being above normal, with 17 to 25 named storms with minimum sustained winds of 39 mph, and eight to 13 hurricanes. An average year has 14 named storms and seven hurricanes.

In addition, NOAA has forecast four to seven major hurricanes for 2024, meaning those that are Category 3 or above.

Experts at Colorado State University stated in their 2024 forecast that the U.S. East Coast, including Florida, had a 34% chance of a major hurricane making landfall this year. The average from 1880-2020 was 21%.

Forecasters say that the record-warm water temperatures that now cover much of the Atlantic Ocean will continue into peak hurricane season from August to October. That warm water fuels hurricanes. By early June, the tropical Atlantic was already as hot as it usually is in mid-August — peak hurricane season.

Hurricane season officially ends Nov. 30.