Based on height corrected radar readings, improved satellite, and preliminary recon reading…I am going to call Beryl just short of a hurricane with winds of 70 mph. Recon measured winds up to 70 mph early in their trip, but radar seems to indicate stronger winds. I highly expect the HH will find 75 mph within the next few hours. I was fully ready to pull the trigger about a half an hour ago, but the HH never found winds high enough to confirm hurricane status.

A State of Emergency has been declared for Jacksonville. Read more here (Ignoring the Subtropical misnomer): http://www.coj.net/Welcome/News/Update-on-Subtropical-Storm-Beryl.aspx . Also power is out for 2,760 customers  in coastal Ga from Beryl: 2,080 in Savannah; 400 in Brunswick. Another 1000 are without power in Jacksonville. Expect more outages.

The Hurricane Hunters are currently out in Hurricane Beryl as it slowly gets closer to the St. John’s County coastline. Beryl organized into a tropical system over night last night and quickly grew into a strong tropical storm with 65 mph by the 5 pm advisory. Although it has not been confirmed by the NHC as of yet, Beryl now has winds of 70 mph and a pressure of 992 millibars. Feeder bands have been moving down the Florida peninsula throughout the day bringing as much as 2-3″ of rain to a few isolated locations in northeastern Florida.

Tropical storm warnings extend well inland to around Perry, FL and Valdosta, GA, which is about the area where I expect Beryl to stall out and begin her turn on Memorial Day. All of the impacts that were expected with Beryl yesterday are still expected, however winds will be stronger across the entire north Florida and southern Georgia area, likely up to 40 mph 100 miles inland and up to hurricane force in St. John’s County near landfall and shortly after.

There should have been hurricane watches issued from St. Augustine up to Fernandina Beach for this afternoon, and hurricane conditions are possible in this area.

The first large rainband is coming ashore along the east coast of FL near St. Augustine up to Jacksonville Beach, and this will continue to push in overnight.There may be a quiet period for an hour or two as there is some dry air inside of Beryl’s core, but the backside will come in closer to and just before sunrise around Fernandina Beach and Palm Coast. Scattered rain bands will push cyclonically outward from Beryl into central Georgia, the panhandle, and into much of peninsular Florida.  Some of these storms may become severe where the sun has been out in south Florida, and a few weak short lived tornadoes are possible near the landfall site.

Below is the radar as of 7pm ET: