JUST IN: National Hurricane Center Provides Latest Update On Tropical Storm Beryl

5 months ago

On Monday, National Hurricane Center Director Dr. Michael Brennan gave the latest update on Tropical Storm Beryl.

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Transcript

00:00Good afternoon, everybody. This is Mike Brennan here at the National Hurricane Center. It's just

00:03after 4 p.m. Central Time on Sunday, July 7th, coming on with the latest on what is a tropical

00:08storm Beryl now passing just to the east of the lower Texas coast. You can see here on the radar

00:12imagery, the system's gradually becoming better organized. We've seen the peak winds come up just

00:17a little bit today, still around 65 miles per hour based on the latest data we've gotten from the

00:21Air Force Reserve Hurricane Hunter aircraft who are out in the storm right now. But they've also

00:25found that the pressure continues to drop in the center of the storm, and it's down to 988

00:29millibars. It's down several millibars since this morning. So Beryl is gradually becoming

00:35better organized, and we are still expecting intensification, maybe even steady to rapid

00:40intensification in the last 12 to 18 hours or so before the system moves onshore along the coast

00:46of Texas. If we zoom out a little bit, we can see those outer rain bands from Beryl moving inland

00:51across portions of southeast Texas, even into portions of Louisiana, bringing heavy rainfall

00:57out in advance of the storm. And Beryl is currently moving now to the north-northwest at 12 miles per

01:02hour, and that motion is going to bring the center onshore and portions of the middle Texas coast

01:07either overnight tonight and early Monday morning. So again, Beryl's got multiple life-threatening

01:13hazards associated with it. We're going to step through those here, starting first with the storm

01:17surge. We actually have some higher storm surge forecast values now, especially in this area from

01:22Port O'Connor up to San Luis Pass, including Matagorda Bay, expecting somewhere in here to see

01:28four to seven feet of inundation above ground level as the center of Beryl moves onshore near

01:34this region overnight tonight and early Monday morning. We still have that storm surge warning

01:38in effect for portions of the lower and middle Texas coast, all the way from Sabine Pass

01:44down here to the north entrance of the South Padre Island National Seashore.

01:49Again, expecting four to seven feet of inundation above ground level somewhere in this region,

01:53but also seeing some higher values now up into Galveston Bay and also from San Luis Pass to High

01:58Island, expecting four to six feet of inundation here as there's going to be a long duration onshore

02:03flow into the Galveston Bay region as Beryl tracks to the west of that location. And we are already

02:10seeing some inundation of about two feet above ground level, say places like Eagle Point up in

02:14Galveston Bay. We're going into low tide now, but as the next tide cycle starts and the water starts

02:19to come up overnight, we'll see those values rise and probably peak out sometime tomorrow

02:24morning as Beryl moves onshore. So everybody in these areas that's in a storm surge evacuation

02:29zone, if you've been asked to leave by local officials, please do so. You have just a few

02:33more hours to get to a safe place. Just drive a few miles inland to get out of that storm surge

02:37zone to a safe place where you can shelter safely during the storm. If we move on to the wind front

02:43here, we have a hurricane warning in effect for the coast of Texas from Baffin Bay up to San Luis

02:49Pass. Most concerned about this area to the east of Corpus Christi up to the San Luis Pass area

02:54where we're expecting the core of Beryl to move onshore overnight tonight and early Monday morning.

02:59Tropical storm warnings in effect to the south and the north, including the Houston-Galveston

03:03area and also extending inland up into portions of southeastern Texas, including Bryan,

03:08up to just to the south and west of Lufkin, with the potential for tropical storm conditions

03:12reaching well inland as Beryl moves inland overnight during the day on Monday. And let's go

03:19to the track forecast and we'll look at that forecast here. You can see by overnight tonight

03:23and early Monday morning, the center of Beryl moving onshore within the hurricane warning area

03:27and then a northward to northeastward motion across east Texas as we go from Monday into

03:32Monday night and Tuesday. And then Beryl is going to lose its tropical characteristics and

03:35continue on moving up into the mid-Mississippi and Ohio valleys as we go through the middle

03:39portions of the week. Now let's talk about the rainfall. This is going to be a big threat

03:44across not just the Texas Gulf Coast, but also into much of eastern Texas and even portions

03:49of western Louisiana and portions of Arkansas, eastern Oklahoma. We're expecting widespread

03:53rainfall totals of five to ten inches for places like Houston, Galveston, up to Palestine, Tyler,

03:59Texarkana, up into western Arkansas. Some locations could see isolated totals as high as 15

04:06inches. If we get into one of these rain bands that doesn't move and we continue to see heavy

04:11rainfall occurring over the same area, some of the highest rainfall totals could be down here

04:15near where Beryl makes landfall in the mid-Texas coast up to the Galveston area.

04:19And given that, there is a very considerable risk of flash flooding across the Texas Gulf Coast,

04:26eastern Texas, the Arklatex region. This is where we have flood watches in effect now and we

04:32likely see those continue to expand northward and eastward, but we're talking about places like

04:36Tyler just to the southeast of Dallas, Houston, Galveston, all of east Texas. And in particular,

04:42as we go from Monday into Tuesday, this red area is where we are likely to see perhaps some

04:48significant flash flooding risk. Again, those same locations, this is a level three out of

04:53four flash flooding risk, very concerned. It could be considerable flash and especially urban flooding,

04:58particularly if we get heavy rainfall over a prolonged period of time, say in the Houston,

05:01Galveston area, in combination with the storm surge occurring in Galveston Bay,

05:05could cause some very complex flooding in that region. So everybody in these regions, again,

05:11needs to make sure they have multiple ways to receive emergency information as we go through

05:16the event. And we'll talk a little bit more about that in a minute. Finally, let's touch on the

05:19tornado threat. We've seen our first tornado warning actually appear in portions of Louisiana

05:23just within the last hour. But as those outer rain bands from Barrow move on shore tonight

05:28and Monday, the greatest risk overnight for tornadoes is from just east of Victoria up

05:32through Houston, Galveston, over to Beaumont, Port Arthur, down into Cameron Parish in Louisiana.

05:37On Monday, that risk is going to spread northward and eastward across east Texas, western Louisiana

05:43into southwestern Arkansas. So let's just finally touch on the rip current risk. We've been talking

05:48about this. Folks along the Texas coast, you know it's not a good day to be in the ocean.

05:52You've got an expected hurricane making landfall in the next few hours. But farther east

05:58along the Gulf Coast, the dangerous ocean conditions in places like the Florida Panhandle,

06:01the Alabama coast, please heed any rip current warnings, flags, don't get in the ocean, follow

06:07advice given by your local officials there. So just to wrap up with the key messages, we've got

06:11the danger of multiple life-threatening hazards in the landfall area tonight. We're going to see the

06:16danger of life-threatening storm surge inundation, dangerous hurricane force winds. Tropical storm

06:21conditions will be arriving along the coast in the hurricane warning area within just the next

06:25few hours. So you're going to want to be in your safe place to ride out the storm. Certainly by

06:30nightfall tonight, plan to stay in a safe place overnight tonight and into at least Monday morning,

06:35if not through much of the day on Monday, as hazardous conditions will persist even after the

06:39center of Barrow moves through. Again, we're looking at a considerable flash and urban flooding threat

06:45across the portions of the Texas Gulf Coast into much of East Texas as we go from tonight into

06:49Monday and Tuesday. And again, we touched on that current risk that's broadly spread across the Gulf

06:54of Mexico. So for those of you in the Texas Gulf Coast, East Texas, make sure you have multiple

06:59ways to receive emergency information, especially as we go into the overnight hours. Make sure you

07:04have a NOAA weather radio that will alert you if there's a tornado warning or flash flood warning

07:08issued for your area. Make sure wireless emergency alerts are turned on on your phone so that you

07:13will be alerted if dangerous conditions approach your area. So please stay tuned. We'll be with you

07:18throughout the night here at the National Hurricane Center providing updates on hurricanes.gov.

07:22You can find more information at your local National Weather Service office at weather.gov.

07:26And we'll be back with more later on Hurricane Barrow. Thanks for joining us. I'm Mike Brennan

07:30at the National Hurricane Center.

JUST IN: National Hurricane Center Provides Latest Update On Tropical Storm Beryl

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