Tropical Storm Beryl - August 4-13, 1988

A weak low pressure area was noted as early as the the evening of August 3rd offshore the middle
Gulf coast, to the east of an upper low in eastern Texas.  The low remained quasi-stationary for the
next several days.  In the meantime, the upper low migrated southwestward creating a more favorable
upper environment over the weak low.  By the evening of the 6th, the low had drifted northwest into
southeast Louisiana.  The next evening, the cyclone drifted back towards the Mouth of the Mississippi
and had enough convective organization to be desginated a tropical depression.

By the morning of the 8th, the system futher strengthened into a tropical storm just west of the
Chandaleur Islands.  By that evening, an upper trough digging in from the northeast destroyed the
upper high over Beryl.  As a front approached from the northwest, Beryl turned back around to the
northwest into Louisiana.  By the evening of the 9th, the system degenerated back into a tropical
depression as it moved through the Teche country.  The surface low slowly spun down, and was
last seen across northeast Texas on the morning of the 12th.  The upper portion of its circulation
was idenifiable for an additional day as it recurved through central Oklahoma ahead of a shortwave
embedded in the westerlies over the Rockies.  Below is the track of this storm, provided by the
National Hurricane Center. 
Tropical Storm Beryl (1988) Track 

After final landfall, the rainfall maximum shifted left of track due to northeasterly flow aloft.  The
storm total rainfall maps below were constructed using data from the National Climatic Data Center. 

Beryl (1988) Storm Total Rainfall
Beryl (1988) Storm Total Rainfall Beryl (1988) Storm Total Rainfall