Tropical Storm Beryl was a

tropical storm A tropical cyclone is a rapidly rotating storm system with a low-pressure area, a closed low-level atmospheric circulation, strong winds, and a spiral arrangement of thunderstorms that produce heavy rain and squalls. Depending on its lo ...

which killed 3 people when it passed just south of the

Cape Verde Cape Verde or Cabo Verde, officially the Republic of Cabo Verde, is an island country and archipelagic state of West Africa in the central Atlantic Ocean, consisting of ten volcanic islands with a combined land area of about . These islands ...

Islands. Beryl, the second named storm of the

1982 Atlantic hurricane season The 1982 Atlantic hurricane season was an extremely inactive Atlantic hurricane season with five named tropical storms and one subtropical storm. Two storms became hurricanes, one of which reached major hurricane status. The season officially ...

, developed out of a well organized

tropical wave A tropical wave (also called easterly wave, tropical easterly wave, and African easterly wave), in and around the Atlantic Ocean, is a type of atmospheric trough, an elongated area of relatively low air pressure, oriented north to south, which ...

which was first noted near

Dakar, Senegal Dakar ( ; ; ) is the capital and largest city of Senegal. The department of Dakar has a population of 1,278,469, and the population of the Dakar metropolitan area was at 4.0 million in 2023. Dakar is situated on the Cap-Vert peninsula, the w ...

on August 27. The wave was declared a tropical depression the next morning and upgraded it to a tropical storm later that same day. Beryl passed south of the island of

Brava, Cape Verde Brava (Portuguese Language, Portuguese for "wild" or "brave") is an island in Cape Verde, and is part of the Sotavento Islands, Sotavento group, in the central Atlantic Ocean. At , it is the smallest inhabited island of the Cape Verde archipela ...

by August 29. Beryl gradually intensified as it moved away from the islands and peaked just short of hurricane status on September 1 with

maximum sustained wind The maximum sustained wind associated with a tropical cyclone is a common indicator of the intensity of the storm. Within a mature tropical cyclone, it is found within the eyewall at a certain distance from the center, known as the radius of ma ...

s of . After peaking, Beryl quickly weakened to a tropical depression by the night of September 2. The depression continued on a general path towards the west until is dissipated on September 6 while located to the north of the

Leeward Islands The Leeward Islands () are a group of islands situated where the northeastern Caribbean Sea meets the western Atlantic Ocean. Starting with the Virgin Islands east of Puerto Rico, they extend southeast to Guadeloupe and its dependencies. In Engl ...

Meteorological history

Tropical Storm Beryl originated from a well developed

which was first noted off the eastern coast of Africa on August 27. The wave quickly organized and strengthened into ''

Tropical Depression A tropical cyclone is a rapidly rotating storm system with a low-pressure area, a closed low-level atmospheric circulation, strong winds, and a spiral arrangement of thunderstorms that produce heavy rain and squalls. Depending on its locat ...

Two'' on the morning of August 28. The depression continued to intensify while moving towards the west-northwest, and was upgraded to a

that night, receiving the name ''Beryl''. Tropical Storm Beryl that night while moving towards the west-northwest. On the morning of August 29, Beryl passed about 35 mi (55 km) south of the island of

with winds of . After passing by the

Islands, Beryl gradually intensified while moving steadily towards the northwest. On August 31,

satellite A satellite or an artificial satellite is an object, typically a spacecraft, placed into orbit around a celestial body. They have a variety of uses, including communication relay, weather forecasting, navigation ( GPS), broadcasting, scient ...

s depicted an

eye An eye is a sensory organ that allows an organism to perceive visual information. It detects light and converts it into electro-chemical impulses in neurons (neurones). It is part of an organism's visual system. In higher organisms, the ey ...

feature developing within the deep

convection Convection is single or Multiphase flow, multiphase fluid flow that occurs Spontaneous process, spontaneously through the combined effects of material property heterogeneity and body forces on a fluid, most commonly density and gravity (see buoy ...

of the storm. However, there was uncertainty in the intensity of the storm as the

Dvorak technique The Dvorak technique (developed between 1969 and 1984 by Vernon Dvorak) is a widely used system to estimate tropical cyclone intensity (which includes tropical depression, tropical storm, and hurricane/typhoon/intense tropical cyclone intensities ...

—a system used to estimate the intensity of a tropical cyclone—rendered a T4.2, which corresponds to an intensity of . But, since the eye feature was located on the western side of the deep convection and the storm was slightly asymmetric, the intensity was held just below hurricane status. Beryl peaked just below hurricane status, with winds reaching , and a

minimum central pressure Atmospheric pressure, also known as air pressure or barometric pressure (after the barometer), is the pressure within the atmosphere of Earth. The standard atmosphere (symbol: atm) is a unit of pressure defined as , which is equivalent to 1,013.2 ...

of . Only four hours later, strong

wind shear Wind shear (; also written windshear), sometimes referred to as wind gradient, is a difference in wind speed and/or direction over a relatively short distance in the atmosphere. Atmospheric wind shear is normally described as either vertical ...

from the west displaced the convection east of the center, leaving the low-level circulation exposed. Beryl weakened to a tropical depression the next day due to the lack of convection. The depression continued moving towards the west for the next three days without reintensification. However, on September 5, a reconnaissance flight into the depression found winds of . This was determined to have been unrepresentative of the storms actual intensity as it was recorded in a

squall line A squall line, or quasi-linear convective system (QLCS), is a line of thunderstorms, often forming along or ahead of a cold front. In the early 20th century, the term was used as a synonym for cold front (which often are accompanied by abrupt a ...

, a band of heavy rain and high winds, associated with Beryl. The depression became disorganized once more and by September 6, it was no longer identifiable on satellites.

Impact

While crossing through the

islands, Beryl's rain and wind to caused moderate to heavy damage. The island of Brava, located on the southwest portion of the

archipelago An archipelago ( ), sometimes called an island group or island chain, is a chain, cluster, or collection of islands. An archipelago may be in an ocean, a sea, or a smaller body of water. Example archipelagos include the Aegean Islands (the o ...

, was struck the hardest. In all, the storm killed 3 islanders and caused $3 million in damage (1982 USD). In the period after the storm's passage, the United States provided humanitarian aid and economic assistance to the country, helping the archipelago to reverse the effects of Beryl.

References

External links

* tp://ftp.nhc.noaa.gov/pub/storm_archives/atlantic/prelimat/atl1982/beryl/ NHC Beryl Report
Deadliest Atlantic Tropical Cyclones

Beryl Best Track
{{DEFAULTSORT:Beryl (1982) 1982 Atlantic hurricane season Atlantic tropical storms

Meteorological history

Impact

See also

References

External links