Hurricane Beryl Striking Cancún, Cozumel, Mexico | Weather.com

Hurricane Beryl is battering Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula, including Cancún and Cozumel today, before turning its sights on South Texas Sunday night into Monday.

Current status: Beryl made landfall in Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula early Friday morning with estimated winds of 110 mph, according to the National Hurricane Center. It was the peninsula’s strongest hurricane since Hurricane Delta in Oct. 2020.

W​ind gusts up to 81 mph have been clocked just south of Playa del Carmen in the core of Beryl. A gust to 48 mph was clocked on Isla Mujeres, just offshore of Cancún.

Storm surge flooding is likely occurring along the northeastern Yucatán Peninsula, including Cozumel. Radar from Mexico’s National Meteorological Service shows heavy rain streaming into Mexico from Cozumel northward.

Here’s where watches and warnings are in effect: Hurricane warnings continue for parts of Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula, including Costa Maya, Tulum, Cozumel and Cancún.

Hurricane watches and tropical storm warnings surround the hurricane warnings in the Yucatán Peninsula north of Cancún and south of Costa Maya. A tropical storm watch is in effect for northern Belize as far south as Belize City.

Areas under hurricane warnings on the Yucatan Peninsula should remain in shelter until Beryl has passed.

W​e will likely see watches issued later today or tonight along parts of the northeast Mexico and South Texas coast.

Here’s what to expect from Beryl:

• F​riday: Beryl will move across Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula with as much as 6 feet of storm surge flooding possible, damaging winds and up to 10 inches of rain leading to serious flash flooding.
• Friday night: Conditions will improve in the Yucatán Peninsula, however, some lingering winds and bands of locally heavy rain are possible before Beryl moves into the southwest Gulf of Mexico.
• T​his weekend: Beryl is expected to be pulled northwestward through the Gulf of Mexico toward the Mexico or Texas coast. Intensification is expected.
• B​y Late Sunday: preparations along the Texas coast for hurricane conditions should be completed.

(​MORE: What The Forecast Cone Means, And Doesn’t)

T​he forecast for Beryl has been gradually drifting toward the right (or east) over the last 12-24 hours. The intensity forecast has increased as Beryl reaches the northwestern Gulf and the threat of a hurricane landfall is increasing.

P​otential U.S. impacts: Well ahead of Beryl, onshore winds could lead to increasing surf, rip currents and coastal flooding along parts of the Gulf Coast from eastern Mexico to Texas beginning as soon as Friday evening, continuing until just after Beryl’s final landfall. The rip current threat could even extend farther east along the northern Gulf Coast, as well.

K​eep this in mind if you have holiday weekend beach plans along these stretches of the coastline.

Beryl will bring impacts such as storm surge and high winds along and to the north of where it tracks along the Texas coast and northeast Mexico. A couple of weeks ago, Tropical Storm Alberto triggered significant coastal flooding along the Texas coast.

Also, a swath of heavy rainfall will occur both near the coast and inland over northeast Mexico and Texas that could lead to flash flooding. This rainfall flood threat could extend into the middle of next week over parts of Texas and the South as Beryl’s remnants move northward.

U.S. threat: Beryl will emerge in the southwest Gulf of Mexico by early Saturday after being steered by a heat dome of high pressure over the Southeast U.S.

Because of that, Beryl is expected to take a northwest curl in the western Gulf of Mexico toward northeastern Mexico or South Texas’ Gulf Coast sometime late Sunday night or Monday. There is some chance Beryl could slow down its forward speed either near or after landfall.

Beryl will have lost strength by the time it reaches the southwest Gulf because of wind shear and land interaction. However, some restrengthening is expected before its final landfall as a hurricane.

Recap

I​t began on Friday, June 28 when the National Hurricane Center began advisories on Tropical Depression Two just over 1,200 miles east of Barbados. Six hours later it became Tropical Storm Beryl.

The following afternoon it was already Hurricane Beryl. By Sunday, June 30, the first on record in the Atlantic Basin in June. That’s a depression-to-Cat. 4 rapid intensification spurt in just 48 hours.

(​MORE: The Early-Season Records Beryl Shattered)

After undergoing an eyewall replacement and passing between Barbados and Tobago, Beryl made landfall just after 11 a.m. EDT Monday, July 1 over the Grenadan island of Carriacou with maximum sustained winds of 150 mph. Among only two other Category 4 hurricanes in history near Grenada and St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Beryl was the strongest by wind speed.

D​evastation was widespread on Carriacou Island, with vegetation largely stripped bare and numerous homes damaged or destroyed.

D​owned trees, flooded streets, power outages and storm surge flooding was reported in the Grenadines, Grenada, Barbados and Tobago.

While its eyewall passed south of Barbados, a 69 mph gust was clocked early Monday at Grantley Adams International Airport, the island’s major airport. Grenada clocked a wind gust up to 121 mph as the center of Beryl tracked just north of the island. A gust to 64 mph was reported on St. Lucia, as well.

J​ust 12 hours after its southern Windward Island landfall, Beryl became the record earliest Category 5 Atlantic Basin hurricane on the evening of July 1. The following day, its winds topped out at 165 mph, the strongest July hurricane by wind speed on record in the Atlantic Basin.

Beryl brushed the southern coast of Jamaica on Wednesday, bringing heavy rainfall and damaging winds. Winds gusted as high as 81 mph at Norman Manley International Airport on a peninsula south of the country’s capital city, Kingston, Wednesday afternoon, damaging a section of roof. This was the strongest hurricane to strike Jamaica in almost 17 years, since Hurricane Dean in 2007.

A​s Beryl made its closest approach, winds gusted to 54 mph on Grand Cayman Island on July 4.

M​ORE ON WEATHER.COM

-​ Hurricane Beryl’s Most Eye-Popping Satellite Images

-​ How To Prepare For Hurricane Season

-​ What’s Been Deadliest In US Hurricanes, Tropical Storms Lately May Surprise You