A vast area of the Caribbean is on alert Sunday after Tropical Storm Beryl strengthened to become the first hurricane of the 2024 Atlantic season.

The National Hurricane Center (NHC) reported that Beryl is moving about 530 miles east of Barbados in the Atlantic Ocean, and that it expects it to bring "deadly winds and storm surge" when it reaches the Windward Islands early Monday.

The NHC warned that the storm is "strengthening" and forecast it will become a "dangerous major hurricane" when it makes landfall in the Caribbean.

Barbados, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines and Grenada are on hurricane watch, while Martinique, Tobago and Dominica are on tropical storm warning, the NHC detailed in one of its latest warnings.

In Bridgetown, the capital of Barbados, cars lined up at gas stations, while supermarkets and grocery stores were crowded with people buying all kinds of food, water and other supplies.

A major hurricane is considered Category 3 or higher on the Saffir-Simpson scale with winds of at least 111 miles per hour.

According to experts, such a powerful storm at the start of the hurricane season, which runs from early June to late November in the Atlantic, is extremely rare.

"Only five major hurricanes (Category 3+) have been recorded in the Atlantic before the first week of July. Beryl would be the sixth and the earliest occurrence at this end of the tropical Atlantic," hurricane expert Michael Lowry wrote on X.

Winds of nearly 90 miles per hour

The NHC noted that at 2 a.m. (local time) Sunday, Beryl's maximum sustained wind speed had increased to nearly 90 miles per hour.

The Saffir-Simpson scale designates Category 1 hurricanes with wind speeds of at least 74 miles per hour.

"Hurricane conditions are expected in the hurricane warning area beginning early Monday," the NHC added as it warned of strong rains, flooding and storm surge that could raise water levels up to 7 feet above normal.

"Wind speeds at the top and on hillsides and mountainsides are often up to 30 percent stronger than near-surface winds," the NHC said.

The U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) said in late May that it expects this year to be an "extraordinary" hurricane season with up to seven Category 3 or higher storms.

The agency cited warm Atlantic Ocean temperatures and conditions related to the La Niña weather phenomenon in the Pacific to explain the increase in storms.