The 1988 season

Tropical Storm Beryl (1988)

Tropical Storm Beryl peaked at 45 kt in the North Atlantic between August 8, 1988 and August 10, 1988, with a lowest pressure of 1001 mb, and made landfall.

Track and intensity

The whole track of Tropical Storm Beryl, colored by strength, with the other storms of the 1988 season in the same basin behind it, and its wind and pressure hour by hour. Every fix is in the track table below.

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The storm

Basin
North Atlantic
Dates
August 8, 1988 to August 10, 1988
Peak strength
Tropical Storm, 45 kt (52 mph)
Lowest pressure
1001 mb (29.56 inHg)
Landfall
Yes
Accumulated cyclone energy
1.1
Fastest the center moved
10 kt (12 mph)
Identifier
AL021988

Deaths and damage

No source this site reads publishes a machine-readable casualty or damage figure for a storm of this era. The National Hurricane Center’s season tables begin in 1995 and carry deaths and damage only from 2005 in the Atlantic and 2020 in both basins; the US Storm Events record begins in 1996.

Rainfall

The Weather Prediction Center attributes 760 rain gauge totals over the contiguous United States to this storm. The wettest reached 16.09 inches (409 mm).

StationTotalPosition
DAUPHIN ISLAND #216.09 in (409 mm)30.25N 88.08W
MT. ENTERPRISE12.50 in (318 mm)31.92N 94.68W
CLAYTON11.15 in (283 mm)32.10N 94.49W
PASCAGOULA 3 NE10.80 in (274 mm)30.40N 88.48W
BILOXI10.46 in (266 mm)30.38N 88.98W
FRANKLIN 3 NW10.42 in (265 mm)29.82N 91.55W
VANCLEAVE10.08 in (256 mm)30.48N 88.65W
SAUCIER EXP FOREST9.44 in (240 mm)30.63N 89.05W
CUSHING8.97 in (228 mm)35.98N 96.78W
GULFPORT NAVAL CENTER8.79 in (223 mm)30.38N 89.13W
WAVELAND8.45 in (215 mm)30.30N 89.38W
ROBERTSDALE8.41 in (214 mm)30.57N 87.70W

WPC’s storm rainfall file, 1900 to 2020, compiled by David Roth.

Track

Time (UTC)PositionWindPressureStatus
Aug 8, 00:0030.4N 90.3W25 kt1010 mbTropical depression
Aug 8, 06:0029.7N 89.7W30 kt1009 mbTropical depression
Aug 8, 12:0029.7N 89.4W35 kt1007 mbTropical storm
Aug 8, 18:0029.4N 89.2W40 kt1005 mbTropical storm
Aug 9, 00:0029.3N 89.1W45 kt1002 mbTropical storm
Aug 9, 06:0029.6N 89.5W45 kt1001 mbTropical storm
Aug 9, 12:0030.1N 90.4W45 kt1002 mbTropical storm
Aug 9, 18:0030.1N 90.9W40 kt1005 mbTropical storm
Aug 10, 00:0030.3N 91.6W30 kt1006 mbTropical depression
Aug 10, 06:0030.7N 92.2W30 kt1007 mbTropical depression
Aug 10, 12:0031.2N 92.6W25 kt1008 mbTropical depression
Aug 10, 18:0031.7N 93.2W20 kt1011 mbTropical depression

Other North Atlantic storms of 1988

What this means

A best track is the record a warning agency settles on after the storm, not what it said at the time: position, maximum sustained wind and central pressure every six hours, revised against every observation that came in later. Category is the Saffir-Simpson scale, which runs from Category 1 at 64 kt to Category 5 at 137 kt and reads wind only, so it says nothing about surge or rain. Accumulated cyclone energy adds up the square of the wind through the storm's life, so it counts strength and duration together.

Sources

Storm history from NOAA NCEI’s International Best Track Archive for Climate Stewardship (IBTrACS), which merges the official best track of every warning agency. Live storms, cones, watches and warnings from the National Hurricane Center and the Central Pacific Hurricane Center. Archived radar from NOAA’s Level II archive.

The National Hurricane Center has published no tropical cyclone report for this storm.