Hurricane Beryl barrels toward Jamaica as Category 4 storm

July 2 (UPI) -- Hurricane Beryl was barreling toward Jamaica early Wednesday, according to forecasters who are warning the Caribbean island nation and the Cayman Islands to expect to be hit by "life-threatening winds and storm surge" later in the day.

Even as Hurricane Beryl weakened to a Category 4 storm as it passed south of the Dominican Republic on Tuesday, it has remained a "dangerous" and life-threatening hurricane as it heads for Jamaica, forecasters said.

The National Hurricane Center located Beryl about 125 miles southeast of Kingston, Jamaica and 430 miles east-southeast of Grand Cayman, in its 8 a.m. EDT update .

It was packing maximum sustained winds of 145 mph and was moving west-northwest at 20 mph.

A hurricane warning was in effect for Jamaica and Grand Cayman as well as Little Cayman and Cayman Brac.

On Tuesday night, the government of Mexico issued a hurricane watch for the east coast of the Yucatan Peninsula from Chetumal to Cabo Catoche.

Hurricane watch was already in place for the south coast of Haiti from the border with the Dominican Republic to Anse d'Hainault.

Belize also issued a tropical storm watch Tuesday night for south of Chetumal to Belize city.

Watches were already called for the south coast of the Dominican Republic from Punta Palenque westward to the border with Haiti and the south coast of Haiti from the border with the Dominican Republic to Anse d'Hainault.

The storm is forecast to move rapidly across the central Caribbean Sea before passing near or over Jamaica later Wednesday and the Cayman Islands on either Wednesday night or early Thursday.

Though Beryl is forecast to weaken over the next day or two, it is expected to be either or close to a major hurricane when it passes Jamaica and the Cayman Island.

It will then set it sights on Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula for Thursday night.

Forecasters are expecting Beryl to produce rainfall amounts of 4 to 8 inches with isolated totals of 12 inches across Jamaica and the southwestern Haitian Peninsula through late Wednesday.

Beryl made landfall on Grenada's Carriacou Island in the Caribbean Sea with maximum sustained winds of 150 mph around 11 a.m. Tuesday. It is the strongest known hurricane to pass through the Grenadines, according to data from NOAA since 1851.

On Sunday, Beryl became the earliest Category 4 hurricane on record in the Atlantic and the only Category 4 storm ever recorded in June.

It then later became the earliest Category 5 storm in history before being downgraded to a Category 4 storm on Tuesday.

Only seven named storms have formed over the last 173 years in this sector of the Atlantic before July 4, according to Accuweather .

Alberto , the first tropical storm of the season, made landfall over Mexico on June 20 and then pummeled Texas the next day with rain.

Tropical Storm Chris, the third named storm of the season, made landfall in eastern Mexico late Sunday.