The center of the Hurricane Berylof Category 4 On the Saffir-Simpson scale, it was located in the Caribbean Sea and continues to move west-northwest with a trajectory towards the Yucatan Peninsulasoutheastern Mexico, the National Meteorological Service (SMN) reported on Tuesday.

In its most recent statement, the SMN indicated that at 18:00 local time (00:00 GMT on Wednesday) Beryl was located 580 kilometers (km) east-southeast of Kingston, Jamaica, and 1,695 km east-southeast of Cancun, Quintana Roo. In addition, it has maximum sustained winds of 240 kilometers per hour (km/h) with gusts of 295 km/h and is moving west-northwest at 35 km/h.

Beryl will head to Jamaica – is expected to pass near this island on Wednesday – and the next day it will affect the Cayman Islands. It could also pass along the coast of Haiti from the border with the Dominican Republic to the town of Anse d’Hainault, according to the NHC. The Jamaican government announced on Tuesday the closure of the international airport and non-essential government offices as part of preparations for the arrival of the cyclone.

Given these conditions, the Mexican Meteorological Service, in coordination with the National Hurricane Center of the United States, established a hurricane surveillance zone from Cabo Catoche to Chetumal, Quintan Roo. The agency indicated that “for the moment, this system does not affect Mexican coasts“However, according to its trajectory, “Beryl’s cloud bands are expected to cause intense to torrential rains, strong gusts of wind and high waves on the Yucatan Peninsula starting Thursday.”

Given these conditions, the SMN recommended that its warnings be heeded and that recommendations from state authorities and Civil Protection be followed. The SMN warned on Monday of a double impact from Beryl in Mexico, where between Thursday and Friday it would make landfall in Quintana Roo, the country’s largest tourist state, and between Sunday and Monday of next week it would reach the state of Veracruz, in the Gulf of Mexico.

This Tuesday, the president of Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, He criticized the “sensationalism” surrounding Hurricane Berylwhich reached Category 5 status on Monday, the most intense cyclone at this early stage of the Atlantic hurricane season.

“They will never be left helpless, but they should not be upset, because there will also be Too much sensationalismtoo much information about the hurricane, exaggerated,” the president asked the inhabitants of the Mexican Caribbean in his morning conference. Beryl, which has left four dead in the Caribbean islands, is the first hurricane of the season and sets a “alarming precedent“because a cyclone of maximum intensity had never formed in the Atlantic at this time of year, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) warned on Tuesday. But López Obrador said that “now there is no certainty that it will arrive with force and that it will enter through Chetumal,” the capital of Quintana Roo, “or through any town, there is still no such thing.”

In the current Atlantic hurricane season, Mexico has received two tropical storms. The first was Albertoon June 20, which left six dead in Nuevo León, a state on the northern border of Mexico, in addition to destruction and flooding in the capital Monterrey, the second most populous city in Mexico.

While the second was Chriswhich made landfall in the early hours of Monday, July 1, in the state of Veracruz. Mexican authorities predicted in May up to 41 named cyclones in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, of which at least five would impact the country.