Beryl tracking north of Houston as tropical storm, will race across US this week
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Hurricane Beryl, as seen on AccuWeather Enhanced RealVue™ Satellite, while making landfall near Matagorda, Texas, at 4:00 a.m. CDT on July 8, 2024. |
• Beryl restrengthened into a hurricane late Sunday night and made landfall near Matagorda, Texas, around 4:00 a.m. CDT.
• Beryl was downgraded to a tropical storm at 10am CDT and will continue to bring damaging winds, storm surge flooding, inland flooding from rain, damaging wind gusts and even tornadoes to parts of the south-central United States into Tuesday.
• Beryl's effects will be felt far beyond the Lone Star State this week as the storm will race north and east through the Midwest and then the Northeast, bringing heavy rain and a continued risk for a few tornadoes.
The second tropical system to affect Texas (after Alberto last month) and the first to make a U.S. landfall this season, Beryl made landfall around Matagorda, Texas, around 4 a.m. CDT. The storm was churning over the Gulf of Mexico about 150 miles to the east of South Texas as of Sunday afternoon and began to reorganize after losing wind intensity over Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula late last week.
Beryl restrengthened into a hurricane late Sunday night and flooding, damaging gusts and tornadoes are among the hazards the Lone Star State faces into Monday evening as the storm slowly loses peak wind intensity.
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Beryl was downgraded to a tropical storm after an expected loss in wind intensity at 10 am CDT. Beryl's impacts will not end in Texas but rather expand across the Central states and into a portion of the Great Lakes later in the week. Flooding rain and even a few twisters will be the primary concerns as what is left of the storm works its way through the nation's heartland.
As the storm continues to press on over land, rainbands can bring flooding downpours and a risk of tornadoes to eastern Texas.
Because Beryl was strengthening at the time of landfall, it will be slow to unwind initially. During Monday morning and midday, Beryl's eyewall passed close to Houston with torrential rain and hurricane-force winds creating dangerous conditions.
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One of the deadliest aspects of a tropical system is storm surge, which can and is expected with Beryl to impact areas hundreds of miles away from the point of landfall.
Storm surge will continue to lead to inundation along the upper portion of the Texas coast and the western portion of the Louisiana coast into Monday night.
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With the storm now pushing off to the north and northeast later Monday night, storm surge along the coast will gradually subside.
But, even as the storm surge subsides, an enraged Gulf of Mexico will continue to produce strong and frequent rip currents from Texas to Florida.
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The area in northeastern Texas will also have to endure the strongest wind gusts from Beryl, up to 60 mph into Monday evening.
Tropical-storm-force wind gusts can also stretch far away from the center into Monday evening, impacting Texas cities such as Victoria, Houston and Tyler, and Shreveport, Louisiana.
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"These strong winds will down trees, cause power outages and significant property damage," said AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Tyler Roys. "Power outages can last for days to weeks in the hardest-hit areas."
As of 2 p.m. CDT on Monday, more than 2.7 million utility customers were without power in eastern Texas, according to PowerOutage.US.
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While hurricanes are considered phenomena of the ocean, freshwater flooding from heavy rain can be a killer that extends far inland from the point of landfall.
Meteorologists are warning that rainfall tallying up to the AccuWeather Local StormMax™ of 24 inches can fall over a span of less than a day across eastern Texas into Monday and Monday night.
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"The most intense rainfall, ranging from 8 to 12 inches in most areas, will occur near the storm's landfall location along the east-central Texas coast, extending up to Houston and Tyler," added Roys. Many of the same spots in this zone have had a very wet spring and early summer, which led to deadly flooding.
In addition, a tornado risk will continue well after Beryl's landfall, mainly to the north and east of the storm's center. It is nearly impossible to predict exactly where such tornadoes, often obscured by heavy, tropical rainfall, will occur, so it is important for residents and businesses to have a way to receive warnings, such as by using the AccuWeather App.
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All told Beryl is a 1 on the AccuWeather RealImpact™ Scale for Hurricanes in the U.S. due to the threat posed by storm surge flooding, wind and rain.
In advance of Beryl's arrival, Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick has issued a disaster declaration for 120 counties spanning central and eastern Texas.
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Landfalling hurricanes are somewhat rare during July in Texas. According to Colorado State University Hurricane Researcher Phil Klotzbach, only nine have made landfall in the Lone Star State since reliable records began in 1851, the most recent being Hanna in 2020.
As is typical with most tropical cyclones after moving inland, Beryl is expected to lose wind intensity as it moves north into Texas early in the week. A similar impact was observed late last week in Mexico, where Beryl made its second landfall after grazing Jamaica and making landfall in Carriacou in the Caribbean earlier in the week.
Despite the easing of wind impacts, other threats will remain deep into the new workweek as the storm races off to the north and east, warn AccuWeather meteorologists.
"As Beryl moves inland, it transition into a tropical rainstorm," said Pydynowski. "However, rain bands and squalls located to the east and southeast of Beryl's center will contain a lot of spinning motion, which can spawn tornadoes."
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While the threat of tornadoes will be greatest in Texas early this week, that risk can extend across the Mississippi and Ohio valleys and even as far north and east as the eastern Great Lakes by midweek.
"These tornadoes can be particularly dangerous as they can develop very quickly in fast-moving thunderstorms and can be obscured by downpours or darkness if they occur at nighttime," warned Pydynowski.
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The biggest, most widespread concern from Beryl as a rainstorm will be from heavy rain. Besides Texas, AccuWeather meteorologists are forecasting the storm to bring at least an inch of rain to portions of nearly a dozen other states from Louisiana to New York. The storm's tentacles will even reach Canada by late in the week.
The heaviest rainfall will follow Beryl's track through Arkansas, Missouri, Illinois and Indiana through late Tuesday, where up to 8 inches can fall. Since the storm will be moving fast, this rain can fall in just a matter of hours, leading to reduced visibility for motorists and flash flooding on highways and in poor-drainage areas.
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Detroit, Indianapolis, Little Rock and St. Louis are among the cities where a few inches of rain can fall from Beryl this week, leading to slow travel and airport delays.
Despite the prospects of tropical downpours impacting travel and summer plans, some along the storm's path are actually looking forward to receiving a dousing of rain from Beryl.
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"Large portions of the southern U.S. are experiencing drought conditions," said AccuWeather Meteorologist Alexander Duffus. "This rainfall can help to alleviate that, although for some, it will come as too much at once."
In addition, the broad flow to the east of the storm across the Eastern Seaboard will pull rich, tropical moisture north from the Gulf of Mexico through the Southeast and toward the mid-Atlantic throughout the week, leading to flooding downpours from showers and thunderstorms, but also some drought relief from northern Florida to eastern Pennsylvania.
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