In a recent post, before we officially had Tropical Storm Beryl, I wrote that I could "hardly Beryl the suspense." Alas, this pun turns on "Beryl" being pronounced like "barrel." But now comes NHC forecaster Stacy Stewart telling me I'm wrong:
THE LAST RECON PASS THROUGH THE CENTER OF BERYL THIS MORNING INDICATED THE PRESSURE HAD DROPPED ANOTHER MILLIBAR DOWN TO 1004 MB. FLIGHT-LEVEL WINDS AT 850 MB WERE 52 KT IN THE EASTERN QUADRANT IN CONVECTION...AND THAT IS THE JUSTIFICATION FOR INCREASING THE INTENSITY TO 40 KT. ALSO...THE CORRECT PRONUNCIATION OF TROPICAL STORM BERYL IS BERLE... LIKE THE LAST NAME OF MILTON BERLE.
So forgive my failed bad pun. Good thing we have such well informed forecasters at the National Hurricane Center. Meawhile, Jeff Masters has good stuff on the storm's recent intensification. It's about to run over some warm seawater, although nobody really expects it to become a hurricane. It could conceivably make landfall in New England, however....
