The center of Tropical Storm Bertha has moved west of most of Florida, but is still hurling heavy winds and waves at the northeastern coast of the Gulf of America.
The latest update from the National Weather Service’s (NWS) National Hurricane Center (NHC) puts Bertha centered about 45 miles east-northeast of the mouth of the Mississippi River, which is about 140 miles west-southwest of Panama City. The system is moving west at 4 knots.
Bertha is not expected to strengthen to hurricane status, as it’s been a tropical storm for barely more than a day. NHC officials say maximum sustained winds are 45 knots with gusts up to 55 knots. It was upgraded from a tropical depression to tropical storm late Monday when the sustained winds exceeded 39 mph, the threshold for the classification of tropical storm.
NHC forecasters say Bertha is “a heavily sheared system,” meaning atmospheric conditions are preventing it from gaining strength and a frontal system marching down from the Plains states will weaken it as well.
Still, NWS officials at the Tallahassee station say Florida will still feel the impacts from the storm for most of this week.
“The main impacts across the northeast Gulf Coast will continue to revolve around bands of gusty showers with a brief tropical storm gust of up to 40 mph. Tropical downpours could lead to isolated instances of flooding in urban areas. High surf and rip current risks continue through at least Thursday,” the NWS said.
NWS coastal flood advisories remain in place for most of the Panhandle counties from the Big Bend to the Alabama state line. Small craft advisories are also posted along with rip current warnings for most counties along the Gulf Coast from Naples to the Emerald Coast.
NHC officials say Bertha is still expected to produce 1 to 4 inches of rain through Thursday from the western Gulf Coast from Florida to southern Texas, with higher totals of 6 inches possible. Seas in the Gulf near the storm are measuring about 12 feet. The center of the storm is expected to brush Louisiana and eventually hit Texas directly by the end of the week.
