Hurricane Beryl made history last night, now what?

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. (KNWA/KFTA) — As of last night around 10 PM CDT Hurricane Beryl was upgraded to a category 5 hurricane with 160 mph winds and nearly 200 mph wind gusts.

This is the earliest category 5 hurricane on record beating out Hurricane Emily (July 17th, 2005). Those 2 are the only category 5 hurricanes in July. It’s also the fastest-moving hurricane in a 6-hour period, moving at around 22 mph.

Tuesday afternoon, Hurricane Beryl encountered wind shear, a change in winds with height. This throws the hurricane off balance, thus not allowing it to intensify. This wobbly top so to speak has been downgraded to a category 4 as of 1 PM CDT. This can cause one side of the hurricane to be stronger and the eye wall to not be super well defined.

Where does Beryl go from here? Well, Beryl will encounter more shear, just nearly missing making landfall on Jamaica and eventually the Yucatán Peninsula.

Current models show Beryl starting to make a northerly turn once it gets into the Gulf of Mexico.

This could likely have fairly significant impacts along the south Texas Gulf.

Other than the United States, Beryl is expected to significantly impact Jamaica, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, and Grand Cayman soon. Then impacts shift toward Mexico and Belize. If you have a vacation or honeymoon coming up, you definitely want to keep an eye out on the tropics.

We’ll continue to keep you updated with the latest information!

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