7M in Texas included in Hurricane Beryl’s forecast cone as deadly storm charges across Caribbean

Nearly 7 million people in South Texas are within the forecast cone for Hurricane Beryl’s potential early next week, posing risks of heavy rains, hazardous rip currents and powerful winds.

“If I lived in Texas, and I have lived in Texas, this would be a storm that I would be watching closely,” FOX Weather Meteorologist Britta Merwin said. “The possible impacts would be Sunday into Monday.”

According to the National Hurricane Center, the risk of strong winds, storm surge, and heavy rainfall for southern Texas later this weekend is increasing.

Beryl could also create life-threatening beach conditions along much of the Gulf Coast beginning Friday night and continuing through the weekend.

Hurricane Beryl heads toward Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula after slamming Jamaica, Cayman islands

After peaking in intensity Tuesday morning, the slightly weaker but still extremely powerful Beryl is taking direct aim at Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula.

The water in the Caribbean is extraordinarily warm, however, so it might regenerate quickly. This adds to great uncertainty about Beryl’s strength when it approaches the Yucatán.

Hurricane Beryl threatens to batter US over Fourth of July weekend after killing at least 6 in Caribbean

There is reasonable certainty that Beryl will track across the Yucatán into the Gulf. At that point, its forward speed will slow since the high-pressure system to the north will be moving away.

The future track depends on Beryl’s strength , how far north it is, how fast it gets to the Gulf and the exact position of that blocking high-pressure to the north.

The FOX Forecast Center said it increasingly appears that Beryl’s track will indeed bend north into the Gulf, but the sharpness of the bend is unknowable.

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The National Hurricane Center is forecasting a tropical storm or a weak hurricane in the Gulf but adding the admonition that the intensity is highly uncertain.

“Sometimes we can have that last-minute punch from a tropical storm into a Category 1 hurricane, but that wouldn’t change the impact,” Merwin said.

The impact would likely be rain, Merwin adds. Far South Texas, including Brownsville and Port Mansfield, are in a Level 2 out of 4 threat for flash flooding on Sunday into early Monday.  Beryl’s forecast cone includes those two cities plus Corpus Christi.

As a result, those living and visiting in South Texas should make arrangements to brace for tropical storm conditions throughout the region.

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