Tropical Storm Beryl forecast to become major hurricane, sets sights on Caribbean, Gulf
Tropical Storm Beryl closed in on hurricane strength Saturday afternoon as it approached the Windward Islands, where it is expected to cross as a Category 1 hurricane Sunday and Monday.
No impacts are expected in South Mississippi within the next week and the National Hurricane Center has warned it is far too early to tell if it will make landfall in the United States. Forecasters, though, are warning that the storm will reach major hurricane strength, with current projections calling for maximum sustained winds of 115 mph within three days. Those same projections, though, also call for a subsequent weakening back to winds of 90 mph.
As of the 1 p.m. Saturday update, Beryl is about 785 miles east-southeast of Barbados and moving west at 23 mph, swift for a storm.
“A relatively quick westward to west-northwestward motion is expected during the next few days,” the hurricane center said. “On the forecast track, the system is expected to move across the Windward Islands late Sunday night and Monday.”
Forecasters spotted another tropical wave deep in the Atlantic that has a 60 percent chance of development within seven days. A third system is in the southwestern Gulf and could bring heavy rain to Central America and Mexico. Neither system is expected to affect Mississippi within the week.
The beginnings of Hurricane Beryl?
Tropical Storm Beryl is poised for development, forecasters said.
It is still far from land. Record warm water in the Atlantic could fuel the system as it moves west toward the Caribbean, Rick Knabb, the former National Hurricane Center director, told The Weather Channel.
Forecasters will closely monitor the system as it moves into the Caribbean Sea near the middle of next week. Hurricane Hunters will fly into the system on Sunday, Knabb said.
If Beryl becomes a hurricane on Sunday, it would be the farthest east a June hurricane has formed in the historical record. Only one other hurricane has formed anywhere nearby in June, and that was in 1933.
Will storm reach South MS?
Forecasts show the system will move west through the Caribbean toward the Gulf of Mexico. From there, it is unclear how far north or south it might turn.
Strength and direction of the storm are impossible to predict this early, according to Weather Channel Meteorologist Jim Cantore. “Those are things we just have no way of having a high confidence in at this point in time,” Cantore said on The Weather Channel.
Beryl is the second named system this year after Tropical Storm Alberto pounded the southeastern Mexican coast last week and sent storm surge through Texas and even brought minor flooding to low-lying areas of the Mississippi Coast.
Miami Herald staff writer Alex Harris contributed to this report.
