Tropical Storm Beryl is expected to reintensify into a hurricane and make landfall along the Texas coast early Monday, bringing dangerous conditions to the United States after battering parts of Mexico.
Hurricane warnings were in effect for much of the Texas coast on Sunday, according to the National Hurricane Center. Warned Coastal areas are at risk of “life-threatening storm surge inundation” and extensive flooding.
Beryl, the first hurricane of the season, became the fastest storm to reach Category 5 in the Atlantic. It made landfall on Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula on Friday as a Category 2 storm after battering the Windward Islands in the southern Caribbean and Jamaica.
It is expected to weaken to a tropical depression as it moves through the Yucatan Peninsula and then reinstate as a hurricane as it approaches Texas. The storm is expected to make landfall near Corpus Christi around 1 a.m. Monday.
“As Beryl approaches the Texas coast on Sunday, a diminished jet stream will act like a magnet, pulling the storm north and northwest,” AccuWeather meteorologist Bernie Rayno said in a statement. “We expect Beryl to slow down as it approaches the Texas coast, which could cause major flooding problems.”
Texas Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick (Republican) Advance disaster declaration Warnings were issued for much of the state on Saturday in preparation for the storm’s impacts.
“Beryl is a powerful storm that will pose a serious threat to Texans in its path with high winds and potential flooding upon landfall and as it moves across the state over the next 24 hours,” Patrick said in a statement.
Parts of Texas could see up to 2 feet of rain, with much of the eastern part of the state expected to get 8 to 12 inches, according to the AccuWeather forecast.
Beryl is expected to change course eastward as it moves into the U.S. and move as a tropical storm toward Arkansas by Tuesday, then into Tennessee and Kentucky by Wednesday.
