NEW ORLEANS — Meteorologist Alexandra Cranford talks about this season's first hurricane.
Hurricane Beryl in the Atlantic Ocean is fairly small with tropical storm-force winds extending about 50 miles from its center. Its maximum sustained winds are estimated at 75 mph as of late Saturday.
Beryl is in the Atlantic Ocean and quickly moving west toward the Caribbean Sea, but first it will cross the Lesser Antilles late Sunday into Monday.
By that point, it could already be our first major hurricane of the season. It may strengthen quickly this weekend, because there is warm water and very little wind shear in its path in the next day or two.
It could reach the southern Lesser Antilles as a serious storm with high winds, surge and rain late Sunday or Monday. Then it will continue to ride along the edge of a ridge of high pressure across the Caribbean Sea.
Right now the intensity forecast is for a weaker system toward the end of the week due to increasing wind shear in the central and western Caribbean.
By next weekend, it may be somewhere around Yucatan or the southern Gulf of Mexico. Exact location and timing are tentative since we are talking about a full week from now.
It appears high pressure over the southeast US next weekend could keep Beryl on a westward track away from the northern Gulf Coast. This set-up would send it into Mexico like several recent systems have done including Tropical Storm Alberto in mid-June. It is too early to say for sure this far out.
We have lots of time to watch it, and we'll continue to track it all next week.
Another system is on the way behind Beryl with a high chance of developing into a depression or storm in the next week.
Closer to the Gulf of Mexico is another system over Yucatan. It will have a medium chance of developing into a brief depression or storm before it heads into Mexico in the next couple of days.
The next names on the list are Chris and then Debby.
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