Hurricane Beryl remains a Category 4 as it barrels towards Jamaica and Central America. Newly appointed state climatologist Jay Grymes says Beryl is expected to turn towards the Gulf early next week, but tells Louisianans not to worry.
“Beryl is going to get into the Gulf of Mexico,” he says. “And I know that has a lot of people in Louisiana alerted. I want them to take the alarm and turn it off. This is not going to be a threat for Louisiana.”
Beryl is expected to hit the Texas-Mexico border as a tropical storm on Monday, far southwest of coastal Louisiana. With such an active hurricane season ahead of us, Grymes says it’s better to start preparing for a storm that does hit us instead of worrying about one that won’t.
“Don’t use up your energy with this storm, which is almost certainly not going to affect Louisiana,” he cautions. “This is a storm, though, to use as finalizing your preps for the rest of the hurricane season.”
Though Louisiana shouldn’t be battered by a hurricane this time, Beryl is the earliest major hurricane ever to form and the only one in June, well ahead of peak hurricane season in August. Grymes says we’re not nearly out of the woods yet.
“Given the hyperactive forecast for the season, I would say it is very likely that between now and November, Louisiana will be impacted in some way by a named storm,” he explains.
NOAA has forecasted an above-average hurricane season, predicting seventeen to twenty-five named storms, eight to thirteen hurricanes and four to seven major hurricanes.
