Hurricane Beryl continues to break records for the Atlantic Basin.
As of 11 p.m. Monday, Hurricane Hunters have found that Beryl’s maximum sustained winds have increased to 160 mph, making the storm a category 5 hurricane on the Saffir Simpson scale.
Beryl becomes the earliest category 5 hurricane on record, beating Hurricane Emily from Jul. 16, 2005.
That year went on to be the second-most intense hurricane season on record. Emily and now Beryl are the only two category 5 hurricanes in the month of July.
Hurricane Beryl was already the strongest June hurricane, the easternmost hurricane to develop in the month of June and the earliest category 4 storm on record. Records go back to the 1800s.
Beryl is expected to weaken as it encounters wind shear in the Central Caribbean.
