Hurricane Beryl Remains a Menace as it Heads to South Texas

Hurricane Beryl pushed on shore in Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula Friday morning as a Category 2 storm. What is next for this historic hurricane? Read on for all of the details

Latest on Beryl

Hurricane Beryl was a tropical storm as of midday Friday as it made its way out into the Gulf of Mexico after impacting parts of the Yucatan Peninsula. While Beryl has weakened considerably since moving back on land, the storm is forecast to pick up more strength as it churns over the warm waters of the Gulf and makes one last landfall in South Texas later in the weekend.

Beryl's first landfall happened early Monday when it crashed into the Grenadine island of Carriacou as a Category 4 monster. The storm wiped out the tiny island, killing at least seven people in the region.

Beryl then went on to swipe Jamaica late Wednesday, just barely avoiding a landfall as it moved to the south of the island in the Caribbean. Two more fatalities were reported as a result of this brush with the powerful storm.

The storm's eyewall moved to the south of the Cayman Islands on Thursday afternoon, packing winds of about 115 mph. These speeds put Beryl at the designation of a Category 3 hurricane as it continued its journey through the western Caribbean. Beryl weakened further as it moved farther from the Cayman Islands, landing at a Category 2 designation.

Favorable conditions in this part of the Atlantic basin allowed Beryl to once again achieve the status of a Category 3 storm for a brief time late Thursday. The roller coaster continued with Beryl slipping back to a Category 2 feature sporting maximum wind speeds of 110 mph early Friday when it made landfall in Mexico to the northeast of Tulum.

As of Friday afternoon, Beryl was a tropical storm with winds hitting speeds of about 70 mph. The center of the storm was located about 650 east-southeast of Brownsville, Texas and 65 miles from Progreso, Mexico at this time. The tropical storm-force winds were stretching about 100 miles from its center. Although the storm has lost a great deal of its intensity, it will still deliver significant impacts as it crosses the Yucatan Peninsula.

The landmass of the Yucatan will pair with increasing amounts of wind shear to further weaken Beryl throughout Friday night. However, this peninsula will still experience strong winds and torrential rain.

Beryl Heads Toward South Texas

Beryl is forecast to make its last landfall along the coast of South Texas early Monday. Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick issued a bulletin on Friday afternoon, urging those in the path to take the storm seriously. Although the storm will not carry the same punch that it did when it barreled through the Caribbean, parts of Texas are in line to see flooding rainfall, storm surge, damaging winds, and isolated tornadoes by the end of the weekend.

The current forecast models indicate that Beryl will pick up strength in the Gulf before hitting the southern tip of Texas as a hurricane sometime early Monday. Meteorologists warn that there is still time for the eye of the storm to take a turn north. Should this wobble happen, Beryl would impact an area farther north in the Lone Star State.

Residents in the cone of potential impact should finish their preparations by Sunday afternoon. You can expect conditions to begin to deteriorate at this time with winds picking up and the bands of immense moisture moving toward the shore.

As is typical when a tropical feature pushes onshore, the heaviest precipitation will fall to the north and the west of the eye. The silver lining is that this is a part of Texas that is currently dealing with abnormally dry or drought conditions, meaning that some degree of moisture will be welcome.

Beryl has slowed its speed over the last few days. After moving at a fast clip of 20 mph earlier in the week, the storm slowed to a speed of about 15 mph as it made its approach to Mexico. The storm is expected to slow down further as it inches closer to Texas.

This slowing is bad news as it means the storm could stall out over Texas, resulting in heavy rain for an extended period of time heading into next week. Residents of Texas remember the impacts of 2017's Harvey, a storm that delivered catastrophic flooding to the Houston metro area because it stalled over the region.