National Hurricane Center tracking another system after Beryl finally dissipates

Beryl has finally dissipated, but the National Hurricane Center Thursday continued to track a tropical disturbance off the Southeast U.S. Coast, one that threatens to bring heavy rain and thunderstorms to the Carolinas over the weekend.

Although the system is not likely to become a tropical depression or storm before it moves ashore, "heavy rainfall will be possible for portions of the Carolina coast late this week into the weekend," the hurricane center said in a Thursday morning forecast.

"Several inches of rain could fall near the coast over the next few days as low pressure moves inland off the Atlantic," the National Weather Service in Wilmington, North Carolina, said Thursday.

Beryl has dissipated

A cold front associated with the storm once known as Beryl will stall out along the East Coast on Thursday and be a focus for thunderstorm activity through Friday, according to the National Weather Service.

The cold front will bring at least a few inches of rainfall from coastal South Carolina to southern New Jersey, with a slight risk of excessive rainfall having been issued for the Virginia Tidewater region, down across the North Carolina coast Thursday and the broader Mid-Atlantic coastal region on Friday.

Beryl unleashed a barrage of severe weather to southeast Texas on Monday, killing at least four people, flooding highways, closing oil ports, canceling more than 1,300 flights, and knocking out power to millions.

Last week, Beryl carved a path of destruction across the Caribbean — leaving at least 11 people dead and destroying or severely damaging infrastructure on several islands. Beryl, which at one point strengthened into the earliest Category 5 hurricane on record, last made landfall on Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula on Friday morning.

West Nile virus transmission could increase post-Beryl

People who have been without power for days, as continues to be the case for more than 1.2 million Texans in the wake of Beryl, may be at greater risk of contracting a mosquito-borne illness like West Nile virus if the bugs are coming into their homes through open windows, said Shannan Rossi, a microbiology and immunology professor at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston.

“If the power goes out and you feel generally miserable, you’re more likely to open up the windows, to get any kind of circulating air,” Rossi said. “The more we put ourselves into the path of being bitten by mosquitoes, the more transmission can occur.”

Standing water caused by flooding will lead to more mosquitoes in places like Houston, Rossi warned, because the bugs lay their eggs in puddles. People will be able to see “plumes” of new mosquitoes about a week after any standing water forms, she said, which can spur a snowball effect of viral transmission.

“If there is any kind of low-level transmission and you have many more mosquitoes come onto the scene, you can then increase that transmission multiple-fold,” Rossi said.

It's important to limit time outside at dawn and dusk, especially near standing water, because that’s when mosquitoes carrying West Nile are most active, Rossi said. And, she added, “It’s hard to say this in 95-degree weather, but wear longer sleeves.”

− Claire Thornton

Atlantic storm tracker

Gabe Hauari is a national trending news reporter at USA TODAY. You can follow him on X @GabeHauari or email him at Gdhauari@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Storm tracker: NHC watching disturbance off US coast