Is Hurricane Beryl a sign of the ‘threat’ to come for Atlantic Canada?

Hurricane Beryl is making its trek towards Jamaica and the Cayman Islands and as meteorologists point to record warm waters as its driving force, some say those temperatures could lead to stronger and longer storms — including for Canada.

The storm has already broken several records, including the earliest Category 5 storm to ever form in the Atlantic and, according to Philip Klotzbach, a Colorado State University hurricane researcher, the farthest east a hurricane has formed in the region.

It strengthened from a tropical depression to a major hurricane in just 42 hours and is the second named storm of the Atlantic hurricane season.

Chris Fogarty, head of the Canadian Hurricane Centre, told Global News the warm waters being seen now are coming much earlier than normal.

“The ocean conditions are very much more like late August or early September,” he said. “We saw this developing, these ocean conditions, and we were wondering ourselves, ‘(It will) be interesting now when the first big storm forms,’ and lo and behold, here it is.”

It’s not just the usual tropical regions that could feel the heat from the increasing warm waters.

Fogarty noted officials have been seeing a “very warm patch of water” about seven degrees above normal in polar regions like Canada, which could give added fuel to storms this season.

“If it does form and move up toward Eastern Canada, it may hold onto those tropical characteristics a little bit longer than it would in normal conditions,” he said.

“It’s no longer the case where we can assume that we’ll just get the tail end of hurricanes. They’re coming in more frequently.”

According to Fogarty, there has been more warming in the atmosphere at higher latitudes, including in polar regions.

This means the