The Foreign Office has issued a warning for anyone thinking of travelling to nine favourite holiday destinations for Brits with potential risk to life consequences if the advice isn’t taken. Officials have issued new guidance for people thinking of going to the Caribbean this summer amid a new hurricane alert set to hit the islands today – and warned people could be evacuated.

The Foreign Office updated the advice on its website for anyone thinking of going to St Vincent and the Grenadines, St Kitts and Nevis, Grenada, Barbados, Dominica, St Lucia, Antigua and Barbuda.

Officials said: “Weather projections forecast a major hurricane to hit the region possibly as early as Sunday 30 June and into the following week. You should follow and monitor local and international weather updates from the US National Hurricane Center and follow the advice of local authorities, including any evacuation orders. See Extreme weather and natural disasters.

“The hurricane season runs from June to November. You should follow and monitor local and international weather updates from the US National Hurricane Center and follow the advice of local authorities, including any evacuation orders.”

The update came as forecasters warned that tropical storm Beryl was projected to intensify into a deadly major hurricane before making landfall in Barbados late on Sunday or early on Monday. The storm continued to move towards the southeast Caribbean on Saturday. A big storm is defined as having winds of at least 111 mph (178 kph), category 3 or higher.

Beryl is expected to be the second robust hurricane season which in the Atlantic stretches from June 1 to November 30. According to Sabu Best, the director of the island’s meteorological department, Beryl’s centre is expected to pass roughly 26 miles (45 kilometres) south of Barbados. With gusts as high as 65 mph (100 kph), Beryl was situated approximately 785 miles (1,260 km) southeast of Barbados on Saturday. It was travelling 37 kph (23 mph) westward.

Hurricane watches were in effect for Barbados, St. Lucia, Grenada and St Vincent and the Grenadines, while a tropical storm watch was issued for Martinique, Dominica and Tobago.

Florida-based hurricane expert Michael Lowry posted on X: “It’s astonishing to see a forecast for a major (Category 3+) hurricane in June anywhere in the Atlantic, let alone this far east in the deep tropics. #Beryl organising in a hurry over the warmest waters ever recorded for late June.”

On Saturday, Beryl was located about 720 miles east-south-east of Barbados, with maximum sustained winds of 75mph. It was moving west at 22mph. “Rapid strengthening is now forecast,” the Miami-based National Hurricane Centre said.

Warm waters are fuelling Beryl, with ocean heat content in the deep Atlantic the highest on record for this time of year, according to Brian McNoldy, University of Miami tropical meteorology researcher.

Beryl is the strongest June tropical storm on record that far east in the tropical Atlantic, according to Philip Klotzbach, Colorado State University hurricane researcher.

“We need to be ready,” Barbadian Prime Minister Mia Mottley said in a public address on Friday. “You and I know when these things happen, it is better to plan for the worst and pray for the best.”