Tropical Storm Bertha, which stretches hundreds of miles, is headed for a second landfall in coastal Texas on Thursday, bringing heavy rain, wind and a flood and surge threat.
Bertha could bring 1 to 3 feet of surge from Port Bolivar, Texas to the mouth of the Mississippi River in Louisiana, the National Hurricane Center said Thursday. A tropical storm warning is in effect from the Gulf Coast from the Terrebonne/Lafourche parish line in Louisiana to Sargent, Texas.
About 2 to 4 inches of rain is forecast through Friday along the Texas Gulf Coast and southern Texas, with isolated totals up to 6 inches, the hurricane center said. There is a potential for some flash flooding.
Bertha made its first landfall on Wednesday afternoon in St. Bernard Parish, Louisiana, about 40 miles east of New Orleans.
Beaches were closed Wednesday from the Florida Panhandle across to Mississippi.
Tropical storm force winds were felt as much as 160 miles from the center of the storm, which was moving west at 13 mph with maximum sustained winds of 45 mph as of 8 a.m. Thursday. Bertha was located about 145 miles west-southwest of New Orleans.
A wind gust of 44 mph was recorded at New Orleans Lakefront Airport on Wednesday afternoon. The strong gales knocked over a Waffle House sign onto a car in Panama City Beach, Florida.
Bertha is likely to dump heavy rain on coastal areas of Mississippi that are still recovering from flooding brought by Tropical Storm Arthur in June that destroyed and damaged homes.
Bertha will still be at tropical-storm strength up until it reaches Texas on Thursday but is expected to dissipate over land by Friday, the hurricane center said.
“Model fields suggest that the prominent band of tropical-storm-force winds to the east and south of the center will persist through Thursday, and therefore only minimal weakening is expected over the next 24 hours,” the hurricane center said late Wednesday.
Weather researchers at Colorado State University recently revised their 2026 Atlantic hurricane season forecast to nine named storms, including four hurricanes and one major hurricane.
This is due, in large part, to expectations of a strong El Niño, “driving high levels of tropical Atlantic vertical wind shear” that tend to tear apart forming storms, according to the CSU report.
The next storm to form would be named Cristobal.
The height of hurricane season runs from mid-August into October. The season ends Nov. 30.
Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.