Tropical Storm Beryl is forming in the Atlantic Ocean and is expected to strengthen into the first hurricane of the year

Tropical Storm Beryl headed towards the southeast of the Caribbean on Saturday and could gain strength and become the first hurricane of the year. The storm will reach Barbados on Sunday evening.

A hurricane warning was issued for Barbados as the island’s weather service warned of flash flooding and power outages, with the storm’s center predicted to pass about 30 miles south of the island.

Saturday morning, Beryl was located about 975 miles (1,570 kilometers) east-southeast of Barbados, with maximum sustained winds of 50 mph (80 km/h). Winds were moving westward at 21 mph (33 km/h).

“We have to be ready,” Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley said in a public address Friday night. “You and I know that when things like this happen, it’s best to plan for the worst and pray for the best.”

She noted that thousands of people are in Barbados for the cricket final of the Twenty20 World Cup, with India and South Africa playing in the capital Bridgetown on Saturday.

Beryl is the second named storm in what is expected to be a busy hurricane season, which runs from June 1 to November 30 in the Atlantic Ocean. Last week, Tropical Storm Alberto brought severe flooding in parts of south Texas and northeastern Mexico. It was responsible for at least four deaths in the Mexican states of Nuevo Leon and Veracruz, according to the Associated Press.

“The development of a tropical storm this far east in the tropical Atlantic Ocean is unusual, but not unprecedented,” Michael Lowry, a Florida hurricane expert, wrote in a forecast. “Only five named storms have been recorded in the tropical Atlantic Ocean east of the Caribbean.”

Of those, only one hurricane has ever formed east of the Caribbean in June, he added.

Mark Spence, manager of a hostel in Barbados, said in a telephone interview that he was calm about the approaching storm.

“It’s the season. A storm can come at any time,” he said. “I’m always prepared. I always have enough food in the house.”

Beryl is expected to drop up to 15 centimetres of rain on Barbados and nearby islands. High waves of up to 4 metres are in effect.

The storm is approaching the southeastern Caribbean, just days after the twin-island nation of Trinidad and Tobago reported major flooding in its capital, Port of Spain, as a result of another weather phenomenon.

Meanwhile, an unnamed storm earlier this June dumped more than 20 inches of rain across parts of South Florida, leaving scores of motorists stranded on flooded streets and pushing water into some homes in low-lying areas.

According to the National Hurricane Center, the first hurricane of the season usually forms in early to mid-August, which would make Beryl unusual if it were to reach hurricane strength. In a report Released last month, NOAA forecast an “above average” hurricane season with 17 to 25 storms, 8 to 13 hurricanes and 4 to 7 major hurricanes of Category 3 or higher.

A tropical storm is a tropical cyclone with maximum sustained winds of 39 to 73 mph, while a hurricane is defined as a tropical cyclone with maximum sustained winds of over 74 mph (119 km/h).