Hurricane Beryl expected to enter Gulf of Mexico, impact on Texas coast and Houston remains uncertain – Houston Public Media

Hurricane Beryl, which formed in the Atlantic Ocean and quickly became the first Category 5 hurricane on record, is expected to enter the Gulf of Mexico over the weekend, but its impact on the central Texas coast is still uncertain.

Beryl strengthened into a massive Category 5 hurricane overnight, and the major system with winds of up to 155 miles per hour is poised to hit Jamaica on Wednesday and make landfall in the Yucatan Peninsula later in the week, according to the National Weather Service.

“It’s really unprecedented to see storms this strong this early in the season and it’s driven by the very warm waters of the Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea,” Eric Berger, a meteorologist with Space City Weather, told Houston Matters on Tuesday.

A hurricane warning is in effect for Jamaica, where the storm is expected Wednesday. Heavy rain and flash flooding are expected in Jamaica. A tropical storm warning is in effect for the southern coast of Hispaniola, and a hurricane watch is in effect for the Cayman Islands and the southwestern peninsula of Haiti, according to the National Weather Service.

“My feeling about what’s going to happen is we’ll see increased rain chances Saturday and especially Sunday, but I don’t anticipate a hurricane forming in the Gulf and moving toward the central Texas coast,” Berger said.

“Beryl has certainly been unpredictable in the sense that it has strengthened more than forecasters had anticipated, but at this point I don’t expect a major hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico to threaten us,” he said.

Beryl could weaken significantly in the coming days due to strong wind shear and drier air, which could push the storm into Category 2 by Thursday. But the system is on track to enter the southern Gulf of Mexico by the weekend, likely as a tropical storm, Berger said.

Its impact on the Texas coast is still largely unknown.

Forecasts show the hurricane moving north after the system became a massive Category 5 storm, allowing it to gain latitude. Despite an uncertain track for the major storm, water temperatures in the Gulf of Mexico are warmer than normal, adding to the storm’s unpredictability, according to Space City Weather.

“If you look at the history of rapidly intensifying storms, Beryl went from a depression to a major hurricane in 48 hours,” Berger said. “That kind of thing happens from time to time, like in September, but it’s never happened in late June or early July.”

“It’s really out of the ordinary,” he said.