Eric Berger

In brief: Just a few thoughts to share on Tropical Storm Beryl tonight—basically some things I’ll be looking for on Sunday. If you’re looking for a nuts-and-bolts forecast of what impacts to expect in Houston on Monday, please see our post from earlier today, which holds up fine tonight. We’ll have a comprehensive update for you first thing in the morning.

When will Beryl start intensifying again?

As of late Saturday night, Beryl remains a high-end tropical storm with 60 mph winds. Its intensity has not changed much today, as expected, due to shear and entrainment of dry air. However, as we’ve been discussing, Beryl is moving into a more favorable environment tonight and on Sunday, and therefore it is virtually certain to re-strengthen.

One key question at this point is when Beryl starts to rev back up. This is because once Beryl starts to increase its winds, it likely won’t stop intensifying until it runs into Texas. So on Sunday I’ll be watching to see how soon Beryl’s winds start to increase, and how fast its central pressure (currently 993 mb) starts to fall.

The National Hurricane Center forecasts Beryl to come ashore as a Category 1 hurricane, with 85 mph winds. However, the forecasters there acknowledge that Beryl could rapidly intensify in the final hours before it comes ashore as the system reaches an environment with significantly lower wind shear. In addition, historically, we have seen hurricanes intensify as they near the Texas coast. The bottom line is that the later Beryl starts intensifying, the better, as it could easily become stronger than a Category 1 hurricane.

A silver lining: Beryl is moving at a good clip

One bit of good news is that the storm is moving a bit faster than expected, so it will have less time over water to get going. Some of our best models, including the European and GFS models, now bring the storm to the Texas coast around 2 to 4 am CT on Monday, several hours faster than previously thought. This will give Beryl less time to rapidly intensify.

The forward motion will also help with rainfall totals, both at landfall and after it moves onshore. Houstonians are justifiably jumpy when it comes to inland rainfall from hurricanes after Harvey, and this storm will make landfall only a little way up the coast from where Harvey did. But Beryl is no Harvey. In fact, the forecast for Beryl’s forward motion after landfall is also trending faster. So while I do expect to see some very intense rainfall in the Houston metro area on Monday, increasingly it looks as though the heavy rain will exit to our north by Monday night or early Tuesday.

We should have better clarity on Beryl’s impacts in Houston by tomorrow, as we’ll be less than a day before landfall. The bottom line is that everyone in the Houston area, but especially residents south and west of the city, should be prepared for heavy rainfall and higher winds on Monday. How much rain, and how strong the wind will be is something we’ll try to fully pin down in tomorrow’s forecast. This will, of course, depend to some extent on the rapid intensification (or not) of Beryl discussed above.

Have a good night, everyone.

In brief: We’re less than two days before the landfall of Beryl and there are still plenty of questions about the severity of impacts in Houston. This post will attempt to answer those that we can. In terms of planning, it is becoming increasingly clear that Monday, perhaps from the pre-dawn hours into early afternoon, will be the most impactful time for severe weather.

Status of Beryl on Saturday afternoon

Good afternoon. As of 4 pm CT, Beryl remains a strong tropical storm with 60 mph winds and a slowly dropping central pressure. It’s movement is northwest, and it remains on course to make landfall in Texas on Monday, likely during the morning hours. There remains a fair bit of uncertainty about precisely what winds, surge, and rainfall the greater Houston area will experience.

You’ve probably noticed the showers and thunderstorms—there has been a lot of thunder and a lot of excited dogs down my way—this afternoon. These storms are not directly related to Hurricane Beryl, but rather are due to a dying front meeting up with the sea breeze and having a party with the peak heating of the day. These storms should sag toward the southwest this evening before fading out by or before sunset. After that we can expect a quiet night, I think.

Starting on Sunday, perhaps by noon, we may see our first rains from the outer bands of Beryl. However, there should be few mobility issues with making final preparations before the hurricane reaches the Texas coast. I expect stronger winds to begin reaching the coastal areas on Sunday evening, so if you live in places such as Galveston Island or Freeport, you’ll probably not want to be out too late. After midnight our region will start to feel the full effects of Beryl, and which I’ll talk about below.

However, before jumping into the forecast I want to share a couple of housekeeping notes.

Housekeeping notes

Find us: There are lots of ways to find and follow Space City Weather online, and to be sure you know when we post updates. We’ve created a page to help you find us on social media, via our (absolutely free) app for your phones and tablets, an email newsletter, and more.

Video Q&A: I’m planning to conduct a Facebook Live on Sunday at 1 pm CT. The purpose of this will be to answer your questions over the course of about 20 minutes (or longer, if there are more questions). You can queue up questions in the comments below, or on Facebook. We’ll also be taking questions live, during the event, which will take place on our Facebook page.

Beryl’s track and intensity

As expected, Beryl is spending most of today fending off dry air to its south, and wind shear to its southwest. The storm is starting to develop better organized thunderstorms, however, and it should slowly begin to intensify tonight. Sunday and Sunday night will present a more favorable opportunity for intensification, and the National Hurricane Center brings Category 1 hurricane to the coast on Monday morning. However, the storm could be a bit stronger than this as historically we have seen hurricanes quickly gain intensity as the near the Texas shore.

We are now only about 36 to 48 hours away from a final landfall along the upper Texas coast. But there remains a decent amount of uncertainty in the final landfall location, and even 50 or 100 miles matter since the storm is going to come inland relatively close to Houston. Our forecast models are pretty good, but we’re talking about relatively small errors that can still be caused by a wobble or two.

What I’m trying to say is that Houston is sort of on the edge: Depending on which way Beryl goes in the last day and a half we could see anything from fairly minor winds to near hurricane-force gusts; and a few inches of rainfall up to 10 inches or more. So my main message here is to be prepared for some serious disruptions in power and mobility on Monday, and if we’re lucky these issues will turn out to be minor. The forecast conditions outlined below are consistent with the latest operational forecast from the National Hurricane Center, which is the most likely (but not certain) outcome.

Timing and severity of Beryl’s impacts on Houston

There are three main impacts from Beryl, winds, storm surge, and heavy rainfall. Let’s go through the latest thinking on each of them.

Winds: Tropical storm-force winds could reach the upper Texas coast by Sunday evening. Generally, areas along and west of Interstate 45 have the best chance of experiencing tropical storm force winds of 39 mph or greater, with higher gusts. In terms of potential power outages, I’m most concerned about Brazoria and Fort Bend Counties, and areas generally south and west of Houston. Again, the extent of our concerns about power losses will be driven by the potential for last second wobbles which will (or will not) bring the core of stronger winds closer to Houston.

Storm surge: Our thinking on storm surge has not changed much, with 3 to 5 feet expected along Galveston Island, and 2 to 4 feet possible in Galveston Bay. This surge is likely to peak on Monday morning, as Beryl nears land, and on top of high tide. Tide timings vary by location, but generally the highest water levels should be anticipated between 6 am and 9 am CT.

Rainfall: We’ve issued a Stage 2 flood alert for the entire Houston metro area, but like with Beryl’s winds, the risk for flooding is greatest along and west of Interstate 45. My best guess is that the strongest band of thunderstorms will move through Houston sometime on Monday morning, perhaps between sunrise and around noon. This likely will produce the most intense rainfall, and the greatest potential for rapidly flooding streets. If you have plans to be out and about Monday morning, please be very weather aware. In terms of accumulations I think most of the area will pick up 4 to 8 inches of rain, which is mostly manageable. However, due to the tropical nature of this rainfall (which leads to high rainfall rates) some isolated areas may pick up as much as 12 or even 15 inches. That’s … less manageable.

A note about flight cancellations

I mentioned this about three weeks ago, but I wanted to reiterate that we hear you on flight cancellations. It’s a major concern with inclement weather. I totally get the anxiety. However, neither Matt nor I are aviation meteorologists or pilots. Unfortunately, we don’t have any special expertise or insight into the decision-making at airports that lead to flight stoppages, nor the cancellation of flights. We try to be helpful, but we’re never going to be able to give you the certainty on this issue that readers want. With all that said, my general expectation is that heavy rain or winds may well disrupt and even cancel some flights on Monday or (less likely) Tuesday.

Our next update

We’ll be back late this evening, probably between 10 and 11 pm CT, with a short update on track, intensity, and some thoughts on whether Houston is likely to experience milder or more serious effects from Beryl. We will, of course, have full coverage on Sunday.

In brief: Although we cannot be certain at this time, it increasingly looks as though Tropical Storm Beryl is on track to make landfall somewhere between Corpus Christi and Matagorda Bay on Monday. For the greater Houston area this will result in higher winds, some storm surge, and heavy rainfall, with the greatest impacts likely on Monday. This post goes into what to tentatively expect, and when.

There is understandably a lot of consternation about the forecast for Beryl, which shifted considerably northward during the last day or two toward Houston. However, overnight the majority of our model guidance has stabilized on a landfall along the Coastal Bend of Texas, somewhere between Corpus Christi and Matagorda Bay.

Given the unpredictability of Beryl to date, I don’t blame anyone for being skeptical about this forecast. However there are a couple of reasons for increased confidence. Most importantly, we are only about 48 hours from landfall, and the average track error at this point is approximately 60 miles. And secondly, the models have stopped swinging about wildly and begun to consolidate on a solution.

In this post, we will discuss the effects of this “most likely” storm path on the greater Houston area, from Katy to Baytown, and Galveston to Conroe. For effects across the entire state of Texas, I would point you to The Eyewall. We will update Space City Weather a couple of more times today, and if our thinking on the forecast track changes, I will post immediately.

Hurricane Beryl’s status and track

Beryl emerged into the Gulf of Mexico as a ragged storm on Friday evening, and has since been struggling with drier air to its south, and wind shear to its west. As a result, as of 7 am CT, the storm has sustained winds of 60 mph. In terms of intensity, it will take Beryl some time to regain its organization, but by tonight or Sunday, it should move into an area of more moisture and lower wind shear, allowing for strengthening. It’s really a matter of how long it takes Beryl to get its act together, because once it does it will find conditions favorable for intensification. The official forecast calls for a Category 1 hurricane at landfall on Monday, but it could easily be a tropical storm or Category 2 hurricane.

In terms of track, Beryl is moving around the western periphery of a high pressure system, and should gradually turn more and more northwestward until moving due north around the time of landfall. That should come sometime on Monday morning, although the precise time is difficult to predict. The likely landfall location is between Corpus Christi and Matagorda Bay, but for now the greater Houston area remains within the cone of uncertainty.

Effects on Houston

Let’s go over the anticipated impacts on the greater Houston region, including winds, surge, and rainfall.

Winds: Along Beryl’s expected track, the system is unlikely to produce significantly damaging winds for much of the Houston area. The greatest risk of tropical storm force winds will be in Southern Brazoria County, and locations such as Freeport and Lake Jackson. Galveston Island will have about a 50 percent chance of tropical storm force winds, with higher gusts. Strong winds would likely arrive late Sunday night, and persist through Monday.

As Beryl moves inland, its center should pass to the west of Houston, so areas such as Sugar Land and Katy will also have a decent chance of seeing tropical storm force winds and higher gusts. If there are power outages, I would expect them to occur to the west of Interstate 45. However, at this time I do not envision a situation in which hundreds of thousands of customers in Houston lose power for a long period of time. Still, it’s something to monitor. The likelihood of seeing hurricane-force winds anywhere in the Houston metro area is virtually zero.

Storm surge: Areas along the upper Texas coast, including Galveston Bay, are likely to see 2 to 4 feet of surge at high tide. This surge should peak on Monday morning. The effect should be similar to what the region experienced with Tropical Storm Alberto a couple of weeks ago.

Rains: Beryl will bring plenty of tropical moisture with it, and the Houston region will likely see heavy rainfall on Monday (most likely) and Tuesday. In terms of accumulations, I would expect much of the region to pick up 4 to 8 inches, with higher isolated totals. This could well cause some flooding concerns, and we are initially issuing a Stage 2 flood alert for the Houston region. This means we expect widespread street flooding, and the potential for some homes to flood. As Beryl will continue moving northward after making landfall, I don’t think we’ll need to go higher in our flood stage warnings. We should get a better handle on timing of the most intense rainfall in a day or so.

In summary

Beryl has been, to say the least, a challenging forecast. Fortunately, we are in the home stretch. You have all of today, as well as most of Sunday, to make any final preparations. We will have an additional update on Space City Weather by 5 pm CT today. However, if there are substantial changes in our thinking, we will update before then. Thank you for your patience and trust.