Three storms are churning in the Atlantic. Will they pose risks to Beaufort County?
Barreling toward the Windward Islands as a Category 4 hurricane Monday morning, Beryl was one of three storm systems churning in the Atlantic. Local meteorologists say Beaufort County won’t feel the brunt.
“Odds are near zero of it impacting South Carolina as a tropical cyclone, but maybe storm remnants wander this way eventually,” said Frank Strait, the state’s severe weather liaison.
As it moved west Monday, Beryl was expected to bring life-threatening winds and storm surges to the islands, which are southeast of Puerto Rico and north of Venezuela, according to the National Hurricane Center. Hurricane warnings were in effect for Barbados, St. Vincent and the Grenadine Islands, Grenada and Tobago on Monday. Martinique, Trinidad and St. Lucia were under tropical storm warnings.
After Beryl’s devastation to the Windward Islands, a track “toward Mexico and perhaps Texas looks most likely,” Strait said.
Beryl is the strongest Caribbean hurricane this early in the calendar year on record, Colorado State University Meteorologist Philip Klotzbach wrote in a post on X.
On Monday morning, Beryl was packing 130 mph sustained winds. The National Hurricane Center said the hurricane will remain powerful as it whirls toward the Caribbean Sea later this week.
The center was tracking two other storm systems Monday — Tropical Depression Chris and a tropical disturbance that had a 30% chance of cyclone formation within the next 48 hours. As a tropical storm, Chris made landfall on the eastern coast of Mexico late Sunday.
The third storm system the National Hurricane Center is tracking was “following in Beryl’s footsteps,” Strait said.
Strait said the disturbance “won’t have quite the excellent set of conditions that allowed Beryl to go into Beast Mode” as it’s expected to move westward.
“However, there is a good chance (70% according to the National Hurricane Center) of becoming a tropical cyclone over the next week,” Strait said.
While the local severe weather liaison said it’s too early to promise the disturbance won’t affect South Carolina, early predictions point to the storm taking “the low road through the Caribbean Sea” much like Beryl’s track.
