Beryl forms and heads for southeast US coast

The area of disturbed weather that passed just east of Miami on Thursday continued to move northeast as expected, then at 03Z today (11pm EDT on Friday), it acquired enough organization to be upgraded to Subtropical Storm Beryl, the second named storm of the season (which officially begins NEXT Friday).  It is exceptionally rare to have two storms form prior to June 1... this is only the 3rd time in known history (back to 1851).  The other two occurrences were 1887 and 1908, so you probably don't remember them!

Beryl is a 40kt storm that still lacks some of the key features to be designated a fully tropical system, but the environment has markedly improved since my last update on Thursday.  It's located about 260 miles east of Charleston SC and crawling WSW at 4kts.  Over the next couple of days, it is not forecast to dramatically change intensity, but to continue its trek toward the coast, making landfall near the GA/FL state line late Sunday into early Monday.  As always, there is uncertainty in the track forecast, and the storm is larger than a single line anyway, so areas around the exact location will also experience tropical storm conditions.  The tropical storm watches and warnings as of this post are as follows:

but you can always find the latest at http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/

Please visit my tropical Atlantic headquarters.
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