So what is the storm going to do - and how much - if any - will Beryl affect Belize?
We remain under Tropical Storm Watch as the storm continues to move west northwest. This afternoon into evening, it brushed the south coast of Jamaica with massive winds of 140 miles per hour.
Later on in the news you'll see our interview with the Principal Director of the Met service in that country.
But this afternoon at 3:30 - we got the most updated forecast for Belize from his local counterpart, the Chief MET Officer:
Ronald Gordon, Chief MET Officer
"Beryl is expected to move south of the Cayman Islands tomorrow, still as a major hurricane, and then weaken slightly as it moves more into the northwestern Caribbean Sea, and eventually making landfall on the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico as either a strong category one or a weak category two hurricane."
Jules Vasquez
"How consequential is the difference in handling a category two storm, making landfall on the Yucatan Peninsula as opposed to a category one? How consequential is it for Belize, which is forecasted to be on the southern side of the eye of the storm?"
Ronald Gordon, Chief MET Officer
"So the size of the storm and its intensity are not directly related. So if it makes landfall as a category two and it remains a compact system, it will not make a significant difference."
"The radius of tropical storm force winds, since that is what we are looking at here, extend on the southern quadrant or the southern semicircle of the storm, extend out about 80 miles. And if you look at the map between the projected location of landfall and the border with Mexico, that's a little bit over, I would say 100 miles."
"Therefore, we are looking at the possibility, like I said, there's a small chance that the extreme northern parts of the areas under watch would experience tropical storm force winds, if the system takes the most probable path and moves within the center of the cone, there is always that small chance that it moves on the southern edge of the cone, which would necessitate, of course, us upgrading this thing to a warning, a tropical storm warning, or even a hurricane warning. That is a very small chance. We do not anticipate or expect to be receiving tropical storm related conditions until about late tomorrow night into Friday morning."
"That, in my opinion, would give persons at least until midday to be on the safe side, to seek safe harbor."
