Hurricane Beryl is poised to enter the Gulf of Mexico early Saturday morning, and the latest National Hurricane Center cone of uncertainty includes the southwestern portion of Louisiana, including Lake Charles.
In their Friday 10 a.m. forecast, the NHC predicts that Hurricane Beryl will make landfall as a Category 1 storm between Brownsville and Corpus Christi, Texas late Sunday night or early Monday morning. That prediction shift's Beryl's track farther to the north and widens the cone to include all of the Texas Gulf Coast and Cameron and Calcasieu Parishes.
"For the next 24 hours or so, Beryl should be steered generally west-northwestward by the western portion of the subtropical ridge over the southeastern United States," the NHC's latest forecast discussion says. "After that, a turn toward the northwest is likely as the storm moves towards a break in the ridge caused by a combination of a trough in the mid-latitude westerlies over the central United States and an upper-level trough moving westward over the southwestern Gulf of Mexico. This motion should bring the center near the western Gulf coast in about 72 hours. Subsequently, a
northward motion through the break appears likely. While the track guidance has come into better agreement, there is still uncertainty based on the possible strength and vertical depth of Beryl.
"Overall the guidance favors the more northward motion and has shifted a little to the right, and the new official forecast also is nudged a little to the
right of the previous forecast. Additional adjustments of the forecast track could be necessary later today."
