Tropical Storm Bertha formed on Monday evening in the Gulf of Mexico south of the Florida Panhandle, drifting erratically toward populated coastal areas with threats of heavy rain, storm surge, and damaging wind gusts. Meanwhile, Hurricane Fausto formed in the eastern Pacific Ocean far from Mexico’s Baja California peninsula, posing no threat to land.
Storm Details and Path
The center of Bertha was located about 110 miles (180 km) south of Panama City, Florida, with maximum sustained winds of about 40 mph (64 km/h), according to the National Hurricane Center (NHC) in Miami. The slow-moving storm has been drifting erratically but is expected to stay near or along the northern Gulf coast early this week, bringing heavy rainfall to northern Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana as it pushes westward toward Texas. Forecasters said some additional strengthening is expected in the coming hours.
Bertha is the second tropical storm of the Atlantic hurricane season and is expected to make landfall in south-east Louisiana on Wednesday. Tropical Storm Arthur last month brought heavy rainfall to the south-eastern United States.
Warnings and Potential Impacts
A storm surge watch was in effect from the Alabama-Florida border westward to the mouth of the Mississippi River in Louisiana. A tropical storm watch extended from the Mississippi-Alabama border to the line separating Louisiana’s Jefferson and Plaquemines parishes, the NHC added. The storm surge watch indicated a risk of life-threatening coastal flooding from rising water moving inland within the next 48 hours. Combined with high tide, storm surge could flood normally dry coastal areas along parts of the northern Gulf coast.
Water levels could rise by 2-4 ft (60-120 cm) from the mouth of the Mississippi River to the Alabama-Florida border, with 1-3 ft of surge possible across portions of coastal Louisiana and Florida, including Lake Pontchartrain. The depression was also expected to produce widespread rainfall totals of 2-4 inches, with isolated amounts of up to 8 inches through Friday from western Florida to the middle Texas coast. The heavy rain could trigger flash flooding, and an isolated tornado or two was possible across Florida’s Big Bend region.
Hurricane Fausto
Fausto gained hurricane status on Monday night and was about 745 miles south-west of the southern tip of the Baja California peninsula, forecasters said. The NHC reported Fausto had top sustained winds of 75 mph and was moving west-northwest at 9 mph. No coastal watches or warnings were in effect, though ocean swells generated by the storm could pummel the Baja California coast and cause life-threatening surf and rip tide conditions.
