By: Youheng Zhong
On Monday at 4 a.m. local time, Hurricane Beryl made landfall in Matagorda, Texas. Hurricane Beryl is classified as a Category 1 storm, or a hurricane with at wind speeds up to 75 miles per hour. In addition to powerful, damaging winds the storm is expected to bring life-threatening storm surges, and up to 15 inches of rain in parts of Texas. According to The National Hurricane Center, many parts of Texas are already experiencing heavy rainfall and wind gusts up to 80 miles per hour.
What Are We Doing to Prepare?
To prepare for Hurricane Beryl, Texan officials issued a disaster declaration for 121 counties and readied emergency responders. Shell and Exxon Mobil started to evacuate personnel from their offshore oil drilling facilities last week, and other businesses are likewise scaling back operations. Last Sunday, about 300 flights flying in and out of Houston were canceled to avoid the hurricane.
Hurricane Beryl: a Bad Omen
Hurricane Beryl is an early-season storm, which are usually minor. However, Beryl was a massive hurricane and only took a few days for it to grow from a tropical storm to a Category 5 hurricane. This is concerning, because massive hurricanes don’t typically form this early or fast in hurricane season. The hurricane formed because sea surface temperatures were higher than normal. Usually, there isn’t much early-season activity because the Atlantic is relatively cool. However, global warming continues to raise the ocean surface temperatures, creating a prime hurricane forming spot.
Hurricane Beryl is the earliest Category 5 hurricane in the history of the Atlantic according to Dr. Philip Klotzbach, an expert in seasonal hurricane forecasts. The previous record for the earliest Category 5 hurricane was held by Hurricane Emily which reached full strength on July 16th, 2005. Dr. Klotzbach says that normally hurricanes this early won’t tell what will happen later in the season, but if it’s happening this early and this big, “it tends to be a harbinger of a very busy season.”
Impacts of Hurricane Beryl
Before landfall on the US coastline, Hurricane Beryl plowed through several other countries. The mega storm formed in the eastern parts of the Atlantic Ocean in late June. Then, Hurricane Beryl headed toward the Caribbean as a Category 4 hurricane, plowng right on through as if the Caribbean weren’t there. However, the Caribbean still weakened Beryl a lot, bringing its wind speeds down to tropical storm level. Despite this setback, Beryl sucked in the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico during its trip to Texas, regained strength, and rebirthed into a Category 1 hurricane. Here are a few places Beryl wreaked havoc in, what they experienced from Beryl, and the damages.
Carriacou and Petite Martinique, Grenada
• Hit by Beryl on July 1st
• About 98% of buildings were destroyed or about 10,000 people’s homes
• Three deaths
Venezuela
• Hit by Beryl on July 1st
• Massive flooding
• Three deaths
Jamaica
• Hit by Beryl on July 3rd
• Strong winds
• Heavy rain and flooding
• Two deaths
• Hundreds of thousands without power
Image Credit by GEORGE DESIPRIS