Beryl is the first named hurricane of the 2018 Atlantic Hurricane Season. As of 5 am this morning, the tropical storm was upgraded to a category 1 hurricane with sustained winds of 75 mph.

Beryl will track westward and likely strengthen over the next 24 hours. Low wind shear and waters sitting at 80 degrees will help contribute to the development of the eye wall. By Saturday night, the hurricane will battle strong wind shear, pockets of dry air and begin to rapidly weaken

Models suggest Beryl will enter the Lesser Antilles area on Sunday night as a tropical wave. Affected areas will experience heavy rain and strong winds with wind gusts up to 50 mph.

We are keeping an eye on another disturbance, a well-defined low-pressure system off the coast of the Carolinas. Environmental conditions are looking more favorable for further development as it will likely develop into a Tropical Depression over the next few days. The system will stall out or slowly move northwestward off the North Carolina coast throughout the next several days. Those in the Carolinas should closely monitor the progress of this disturbance.

On Thursday afternoon, our second named storm of the 2018 season formed in the central Atlantic about 1300 miles east of the Lesser Antilles. Max sustained winds were at 50 mph as of 5pm EDT. Tropical Storm Beryl is incredibly small storm, with tropical storm force winds only extending outward about 35 miles from the center.

Beryl will head west over the next few days and likely take advantage of a favorable environment in the short-term, perhaps strengthening into the first hurricane of the year in the Atlantic. While interests in the Lesser Antilles and eastern Caribbean should monitor the progress of Beryl closely, the storm will be encountering an increasingly unfavorable environment as it nears the Caribbean. High wind shear will greatly weaken the storm, if not completely tear it apart by late this weekend or early next week. Even after weakening though, the remnants of Beryl will bring some rain and wind impacts to parts of the Caribbean next week.