July 4 Update 4 a.m.
Beryl weakened overnight after impacting Jamaica and entering an area of higher wind shear late Wednesday. Beryl is now a category 3 storm with winds of 120 mph and gusts of 150 mph. Still, Beryl is a major hurricane and has been for now 5 days in a row. The latest track has Beryl making landfall along the Yucatan early Friday morning south of Cozumel as a category 1 or 2 hurricane. Beryl will weaken more to a tropical storm as it tracks over the Yucatan Peninsula before making it’s way into the Gulf of Mexico over the weekend. From there, Beryl will be a tropical storm but could strengthen again to a category 1 hurricane before making landfall along the north Mexico or south Texas coast near Monday.
Currently landfall along the gulf coast is just south of Brownsville in northern Mexico. However, there are some signs that landfall could shift farther north into the Texas coast, which is something we’re closely watching.
Southeast Texas is not out of the woods just yet though. With the current track of the storm, Houston could be impacted by tropical downpours early next week. Coastal communities might even have higher tides too. Each of these impacts though are the bare minimum. If Bery’s track shifts farther north for a landfall along the Texas Coast, then our impacts grow too.
Elsewhere in the tropics, the tropical wave behind Beryl near the Lesser Antilles has a 20 percent chance of developing over the next 7 days as it makes it ways across the Caribbean behind Beryl.
