Tropical Storm Bertha weakens into trough, ending Gulf Coast rain threat
The National Hurricane Center reported that Tropical Storm Bertha weakened into a trough over South Texas, ending the storm after a week of rain and flash-flood concerns along the Gulf Coast. Earlier in the week the center flagged a broad area from the Gulf of Mexico off Florida’s Big Bend to the Atlantic coast of Georgia and South Carolina as a possible zone for tropical development, though the chance was low. Meteorologists then noted a low-pressure system forming in the northeastern Gulf that could become a tropical depression. The center confirmed that a tropical depression had indeed formed off the Florida Gulf Coast and later upgraded it to Tropical Storm Bertha, issuing storm-surge and tropical-storm watches from the Florida panhandle to southeast Louisiana.
As Bertha moved westward, the agency extended watches to the Texas coast and reported beach closures, sandbag distributions, and storm-surge warnings in Mississippi, Louisiana and Florida. Subsequent forecasts highlighted that moisture from Bertha was enhancing rainfall and flood risk from Virginia to the Carolinas. Finally, the National Hurricane Center said the system had weakened into a trough, delivering 1-3 inches of rain and isolated flash-flood threats to South Texas before fully dissipating.
