The 2012 Atlantic hurricane season begins on Friday... alright, let's be honest: the calendar may say the season starts June 1st, but we're effectively off and running with Alberto spinning off the east coast a week ago and Beryl making landfall early this morning just north of central Florida. It has been a remarkable burst of pre-season activity in the Atlantic, not quite unprecedented but certainly far from the norm. In fact, we're really living through history; 2012 marks only the third time since 1887 that two named storms have formed before June 1st!

Alberto will go down in the history books as a footnote, a meteorological oddity compared to Beryl. Beryl officially became the season's second named storm Friday night and struggled in the face of, first, wind shear and, second, dry air, through a lot of the weekend. It wasn't until the last twelve hours or so prior to landfall that the storm fully shook off the effects of the nearby dry air and strengthened into a true tropical storm. In fact, with a little more real estate between it and the northeast Florida coast, it wouldn't have been out of the question for Beryl to become an extremely rare pre-season hurricane!

What started as a bright, blue Sunday afternoon deterioriated into a day with tropical downpours as outer rainbands of Beryl moved through north and central Florida starting around midday. While sustained wind was very much on the light side, lots of wind energy just above the ground was carried downward by the heavy rain squalls; at times, wind gusted above 50 mph well south of Beryl's center (55 mph at Playalinda Beach Sunday afternoon). As Beryl came ashore, sustained wind picked up across our northeast counties -- into the 20-30 mph range in Flagler -- but never got much above 5-10 mph farther south. It was gusty though through the evening in the southward moving rain bands and continued to be gusty today (Monday) as squalls and storms were able to leverage the strong wind just above the surface.

Beryl officially made landfall at 12:10am Monday morning at Jacksonville Beach. Some notable facts about this landfall:

• Beryl is the first landfalling named storm in the Jacksonville area since Hurricane Dora in 1964.
• Beryl is the strong May tropical cyclone to affect the United States since 1908
• Beryl is the first Florida landfall of a tropical storm since Bonnie in 2010 and the first to affect central Florida since Fay in 2008
• Beryl is the strongest Florida landfalling storm since major Hurricane Wilma in 2005

Tonight, Beryl is spinning its wheels as a tropical depression across north Florida and will remain there through Wednesday morning. Upper level steering wind is very weak and there's just nothing to move Beryl, or the significant tropical moisture associated with the system. Bands of showers and storms will continue to move across the northern half of the peninsula through the next 24 hours. Here in central Florida, it will turn a bit drier overnight with only isolated storms but, once the heating of the day gets underway Tuesday, showers and storms will again become widespread across the area. With strong wind still aloft, some storms will be strong with gusts over 40 mph and, of course, torrential downpours possible. Already, 1-3"+ have fallen across central Florida as a result of Beryl and the lingering tropical moisture; an additional 1-3" is possible between now and Wednesday morning.

Beryl will move away from north Florida early Wednesday as a weak front accelerates it to the northeast. There is a chance it could redevelop into a tropical storm once east of the Carolinas, but that will not influence our weather. Drier weather will move in for the mid to late part of the week.

Have a great night!

Brian Monahan