A powerful hurricane rushed toward the Caribbean Islands Monday morning, bringing historically early season warnings of hundred mile per hour winds, dangerous storm surge, surf and heavy rainfall as local governments urged residents to hunker down and brace.

As dawn broke, forecasters said Hurricane Beryl would pound St. Vincent and the Grenadines and Grenada through the morning with 130 mile per hour winds that could extend 35 miles from the storm’s center. Storm surge would raise water levels six to nine feet above normal levels, forecasters said.

“This is a very dangerous situation,” National Hurricane Center forecaster Eric Blake wrote in a Monday morning discussion.

Beryl has already broken records. It the earliest Category 4 storm on record in the Atlantic, forecasters said, and the first storm in more than 90 years to reach so far east in June. Forecasters said on average, the first hurricane of a season comes around August 11.

And Beryl is one of three named storms already this season: a system off the southeastern Mexico coastline became Tropical Depression Chris by Monday, and Tropical Storm Alberto drowned the same region in heavy rainfall last month.

Beryl’s winds decreased slightly overnight, the National Hurricane Center said, but the storm will still impact a wide area. A Tropical Storm watch is also in effect for parts of the Dominican Republic and Haiti.

Beryl has turned west and northwest, the latest forecast said. It will move fast in that direction through the week.

Forecasts also show a strong ridge over the Gulf of Mexico could keep Beryl’s future track farther south, Blake wrote Monday morning. Still, he said, “This is a pretty big change from earlier so I don’t want to bite off on that evolution just yet.”

Will Hurricane Beryl reach the Gulf Coast?

Forecasters have been warning for days it is too soon to tell if Beryl will hit any part of the U.S., including Mississippi.

No direct or indirect impacts are expected in South Mississippi this week. Beryl will move through the Caribbean Sea by mid-week toward Jamaica, the Cayman Islands, Belize and Mexican’s Yucatan Peninsula. Forecasts show it could near those areas on Friday.

But forecasters said Beryl’s fate is uncertain once it crosses the Caribbean. Addressing worried Gulf Coast residents on social media on Sunday, Former National Hurricane Center Director Rick Knabb said it was “not time to overreact.”

“Too many track, intensity and size variables over next week plus,” Knabb wrote. “But it’s not time to ignore the situation either.” He said residents across the Gulf South should make only preliminary preparations and help vulnerable residents decide on a plan.

Forecasters have avoided predictions about the ultimate fate of the storm in part because it is hard to tell how changes in Caribbean wind speed and direction will impact Beryl as it moves through the area, according to The Weather Channel.

Those speed and direction changes, called wind shear, are usually strong enough in June to fight the force of tropical systems approaching from the east.

An increase in wind shear from the west could force Beryl to weaken over the central Caribbean, the National Hurricane Center said Monday morning. Latest forecasts show a weaker storm in the western Caribbean, but it is unclear how much the shifting winds could slow Beryl down through the week.

And there is no consensus on where Beryl will go after that.

“It is too soon to discuss what could happen with Beryl if it makes it into the Gulf of Mexico,” Blake wrote.

Beryl is latest storm in already active hurricane season

Beryl is the first hurricane and second named system this year. Tropical Depression Chris is forecast to bring heavy rain and flooding to Mexico on Monday just weeks after Tropical Storm Alberto pounded the southeastern Mexican coast in June. Alberto sent storm surge through Texas and even brought minor flooding to low-lying areas of the Mississippi Coast.

Forecasters are also tracking a disturbance deep in the Atlantic that has a 60 percent chance of development in the next week.

The three named storms strengthened in a season forecasters have already warned will be extraordinary. Fueled by record warm waters and calmer Atlantic winds, Beryl and Alberto became the first of 17 to 25 named storms forecasters predict will form before the season’s end on November 30.

Most hurricane seasons have just 14 named storms.