Meteorologists Assess Potential Weakening of Hurricane Beryl Near Yucatan Peninsula

One possibility in the hurricane predictions is that Beryl may just weaken as it nears the Yucatan Peninsula. It could weaken to a category on systems or even a tropical storm.  At this point, however, the MET Service is predicting that Beryl will be making landfall as a hurricane; that’s because the hurricane may be impacted if it passes over portions of Jamaica or Hispaniola. Chief Meteorologist Ronald Gordon spoke on the possibilities. 

Ronald Gordon, Chief Meteorologist: “There is always a small chance that that could occur. We do know that it is going to encounter some wind shear but like I sad before we do not expect that wind shear to be strong enough to bring it down to that level. From what I have seen in terms of the projected path it will not come near enough to Hispañola for it to have a significant impact on the system and Jamaica is relatively small so to speak and the system will be moving south of Jamaica according to the forecast so we do not anticipate terrain to have a significant impact on the weakening of the storm. Again that forecasted weakening has more to do with the projected increase in vertical wind shear. In terms of the cut off time, that’s very subjective, I’ll be very honest with you. We are joking at additional information. What I usually do is look at at least four consecutive model runs and if they are consistent in their forecast then we would tend to be more confident that that forecast is going to materialize. So when I use 3pm I’m already doing the maths in my head that if I see four more consecutive updates coming out and it’s showing me specifically that then of course we believe that the models are converging on that solution and that’s what’s going to happen.”

As we previously reported, the weekend forecast is for flooding in the northern portions of the country.