HOUSTON — The strength of Hurricane Beryl has exceeded expectations and broken records. While it reached its peak overnight Monday into early Tuesday and is expected to weaken, it will still impact several islands and countries -- one of which could be the U.S., and more specifically, the Texas coastline.
Beryl, now a Cat. 3 hurricane, is forecast to make landfalls on Yucatan next. However, there is a lot of uncertainty surrounding Beryl's path after passing through the Yucatan and entering the Gulf.
Three factors will play a major role in whether Texas sees impacts.
1.) Land interactions. Will Beryl keep nudging north and gaining latitude? If so, land interactions would weaken the storm. However, a northerly push may mean it ends up further north when it enters the Gulf.
2.) Wind shear. Will Beryl maintain a Cat. 1 hurricane strength as it makes landfall in the Yucatan? Or will the unfavorable conditions -- more sheared winds in the Caribbean -- help weaken it enough that it's not much of anything when it gets to the Gulf.
3.) Steering currents. Is Beryl still organized enough to get picked up by the upper-level winds and slung into the north side of the gulf into the Texas coastline? This is a possibility because the high-pressure heat dome that shielded us from most of the impacts of Tropical Strom Alberto is moving east.
There are a lot of variables that will change as we watch Beryl play out over the next few days.
"By the time we get into late Saturday or early Sunday, Beryl could be in the vicinity of eastern Mexico or South Texas," National Hurricane Center Director Michael Brennan told us Tuesday.
What you need to do at home is make sure you're watching it with us and getting an update a few times a day.
"Folks in the Texas coast as we go into the holiday weekend here with the 4th of July coming up, you're gonna want to make sure you check back with the forecast as we go into the holiday weekend," Brennan advised.
If we see impacts from Beryl it could be as early as Sunday into Monday, meaning the time to prepare is now. If there are no impacts in Texas, great news! We've got our supplies ready for anything that may come next.
RELATED: Hurricane Beryl went through eyewall replacement as it strengthened. Here's what that means.
