The current forecast has Beryl crossing the Lesser Antilles as a category 1 hurricane (wind 74 mph+) and then dropping off to tropical storm strength.
There is an area of wind shear just north of the cone of uncertainty which would tear the storm apart should it venture up toward Puerto Rico and the south side of Hispaniola (Dominican Republic/Haiti). Puerto Rico is still recovering from last September's Hurricane Maria so they are hoping Beryl stays south.
Speaking of Maria, the name should have been retired worldwide but wasn't and now there's a Super Typhoon (cat 5) in the Pacific with the same name.
And speaking of "populated", it appears to be headed directly to Shanghai and the entire Yangtze River delta:
Albeit with a very large cone of uncertainty.
Via Stars & Stripes:
7:30 a.m. Saturday, July 7, Japan time: Not only does it appear more likely that Maria may pass south of Okinawa after all … for the moment, Maria has also lost its super-typhoon status, downgraded to a Category 4-equivalent typhoon by the Joint Typhoon Warning Center.
At 6 a.m., Maria was 1,070 miles southeast of Kadena Air Base, trudging west-northwest at just 5 mph and had slipped to 144-mph sustained winds and 173-mph gusts, equal to a Category 4 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson scale....MORE
