It's unbearably hot in Southeast Louisiana and across much of the southeastern United States, and while we may be complaining about the oppressive heat, the cause of that heat is protecting us from Hurricane Beryl.
"We have high pressure all across the eastern United States," climatologist Barry Keim said. "It's a huge dome of high pressure."
According to Keim, that high pressure dome is what's steering Hurricane Beryl away from the Gulf Coast.
"It's our savior right now in terms of the storm," Keim said. "It's basically like a giant blocking pattern, and it's forcing that storm to continue on its westward motion. It's not going to really allow it to turn north and head towards the north central Gulf Coast--or, at least, we hope not."
Although forecasts show that system staying in place and steering Beryl towards the Texas/Mexico border, Keim says we still need to keep an eye on the hurricane.
"In the weather world, we never say never," Keim said. "I've seen some pretty odd things happen. Some things that I never thought were even physically possibly have happened."
Even though Beryl is predicted to stay away from the Louisiana Gulf Coast, Keim says Beryl is a reminder that this hurricane season is shaping up to be a record-breaker.
"This is really a very unusual beast and probably a harbinger for what's up and coming this hurricane season," Keim said.
Keim says tropical activity started later this year than in the last few. Still, Hurricane Beryl breaking the record for earliest Category 5 storm is proof that this hurricane season will be as busy as advertised. Keim says we very well could see more Category 5 hurricanes because the conditions for those storms are favorable.
"All the ingredients are in place for one hell of a hurricane season," Keim said. "The sea surface temperatures are running four and five degrees Fahrenheit above normal, which is crazy. This is like average temperatures that you would see in August."
