The weather disturbance in the northern Gulf of America was upgraded to Tropical Storm Bertha overnight and the system is moving westward, likely to miss landfall in the Panhandle.
The National Weather Service’s (NWS) National Hurricane Center (NHC) issued the latest advisory Tuesday morning. Bertha is centered about 110 miles south of Panama City in the Gulf. The system has increased to sustained winds of 45 knots, crossing the threshold from tropical depression to tropical storm, with gusts of 55 knots
Bertha is moving northwest at 4 knots on a trajectory to brush the Northwest Florida coast but likely will not make direct landfall in the Sunshine State. The NWS station in Tallahassee said the Panhandle will see mostly gusty winds and heavy rain, while increasing seas will impact the Gulf shoreline
“The main impacts across the northeast Gulf Coast will continue to revolve around bands of gusty showers with a brief tropical storm gust to 35 or 40 mph. Heavy rain from training of storms will also be a concern along with gradually building surf and rip current risks into the week,” the NWS forecast for the Panhandle said.
Tropical storm warnings, rip current warnings and small craft advisories with heavy surf warnings are posted for the Florida coast from Apalachicola to the Alabama state line as the seas in the Gulf are growing monstrous with peak waves at 12 feet. Most areas of Florida’s Gulf Coast from Naples to the Panhandle have rip current warnings and small craft advisories in effect.
A frontal system currently centered over the Plains states is expected to drape across the Southern U.S. That is likely to prevent any serious strengthening of Bertha, which is not expected to be upgraded to a hurricane. That would take winds of 74 mph, according to the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale.
Louisiana and Texas appear to be in Bertha’s crosshairs.
“Bertha will move near or along the northern Gulf Coast during the next several days. Bertha is expected to produce rainfall amounts of 2 to 4 inches with isolated higher totals around 6 inches through Thursday along the Gulf Coast and adjacent inland locations from western Florida into southern Louisiana, including southern portions of Alabama and Mississippi,” the NHC forecast said.
