HOUSTON – A weakened Hurricane Beryl hit Mexico’s Yucatan peninsula on Friday, but the record-breaking storm is expected to regain power and strike Texas by Tuesday.
The storm, the first Category 5 storm ever to form in June, pelted the Caribbean this week, destroying 95% of the homes in St. Vincent and the Grenadines, scuttling fishing boats in Barbados and ripping off roofs and knocking out electricity in Jamaica, The Associated Press said.
The storm moved ashore Friday morning in Mexico as a Category 2 hurricane. It is expected to weaken to a tropical storm before it re-emerges over the Gulf of Mexico, the National Hurricane Center said.
Previously: Is the U.S. next in track of giant Hurricane Beryl, the earliest Category 5 storm ever?
Warm waters in the gulf are expected to re-energize Beryl to hurricane strength, causing it to gain power Sunday and Monday and make landfall again on Tuesday.
Where that will happen is the question, but its path certainly will involve Texas.
“There remains some uncertainty in the track forecast of Beryl over the western Gulf of Mexico this weekend,” the Hurricane Center said in an advisory. “Interests in the western Gulf of Mexico should monitor the progress of Beryl.”
Storm path models show Beryl could hit the northern Mexico shore near Texas, or further north into the Lone Star State. Regardless, projections show the storm’s path bending to the north up through Texas.
Those paths show it moving through an area had already been soaked by Tropical Storm Alberto just a couple of weeks ago.
Alberto was the first named storm in what forecasters for the NOAA’s National Weather Service’s Climate Prediction Center expect above-normal hurricane activity, with a range of 17 to 25 total named storms (winds of 39 mph or higher). The average is 14.
Of the expected named storms, 8 to 13 are forecast to become hurricanes (winds of 74 mph or higher), including 4 to 7 major hurricanes (category 3, 4 or 5; with winds of 111 mph or higher).
Forecasters have a 70% confidence in these ranges, the National Hurricane Center said.
Beryl arrived exceptionally early. On Sunday, it became the earliest Category 4 ever in the Atlantic Ocean and the only Category 4 in the month of June.
By Monday it had grown larger into a Category 5 with winds reaching 160 mph.
With climate change warming the globe, more intense hurricanes could form this hurricane season, which began June 1. Abnormally warm ocean waters fueled Beryl’s alarming strength. Experts believe that is an indicator that this hurricane season will be far from normal in a world warming due to fossil fuel pollution.
Brain McNoldy, an atmospheric scientist at the University of Miami, wrote in a blog post that the previous record for a Category 4 hurricane in the same region as Beryl was set on Aug. 7, 1899.
“It’s hard to communicate how unbelievable this is,” McNoldy said. “With La Niña on the way and the ocean temperatures already looking like the second week of September, this is precisely the type of outlier event that people have been talking about for months heading into this season. When you have an unprecedented favorable environment, you’re bound to see unprecedented tropical cyclone activity.”