Tropical Storm Bertha, the second named storm of the 2026 Atlantic hurricane season, sat due south of Dauphin Island and just southwest of Orange Beach as of 4 a.m. Wednesday, according to National Hurricane Center Advisory 12. The advisory placed the storm’s center near latitude 29.4 north and longitude 88.3 west, roughly 50 miles southeast of the mouth of the Mississippi River, with maximum sustained winds down to 50 mph and the system crawling west at just 5 mph. For a few uneasy hours overnight, one of the Gulf’s most vulnerable stretches of coastline had a named storm parked nearly on top of it — and then, slowly, the storm began to slide away.
NOAA Hurricane Hunter aircraft flew through the system overnight to help forecasters pin down its exact position and strength. The data those flights gather — dropwindsondes falling through the storm’s core, surface wind measurements, pressure readings from the center — is what turns a forecast from a guess into an advisory, and the overnight missions confirmed what coastal residents were hoping to hear: the winds were coming down and the storm was moving west, not north.
Even with the storm sitting so close to the coast on Wednesday, July 22, Orange Beach measured only about half an inch of rain and Gulf Shores recorded roughly three-quarters of an inch. Forecasters said most of Bertha’s rain bands stayed offshore, south of the storm’s center, keeping the Alabama Gulf Coast from seeing the heavier rainfall totals that had appeared possible earlier in the week. The asymmetry is common in weak tropical systems: the heaviest rain wraps on one side of the center, and which side gets soaked can matter more to a coastal county than the storm’s own track. For Baldwin County’s beach towns, this time, the wet side pointed out to sea.
Wind reports told a similar story of a storm brushing past rather than slamming the coast. In the hour before the advisory was issued, a gust of 49 mph was clocked at the Orange Beach Buoy offshore. Farther out, an oil platform in the Mississippi Canyon reported sustained winds of 45 mph with gusts to 56 mph. Those readings, from instruments designed to survive exactly this kind of weather, gave forecasters confidence in the advisory’s headline numbers and gave local officials evidence that the worst of the wind had remained over open water.
What the winds still cover
The National Hurricane Center noted that tropical-storm-force winds still stretch out as far as 105 miles from Bertha’s center, meaning gusty conditions could linger along the coast even as the core of the storm pulls away. A wind field that wide means the storm’s departure is measured in degrees rather than miles: bands of squally weather will still rotate onshore from time to time, and marine interests from Mobile Bay westward will feel the system longer than beachgoers will. Small craft should remain in port, and the bridge and causeway corridors that close in high wind will stay subject to intermittent restrictions until the field weakens further.
Forecasters expect Bertha to keep moving west through Friday, with some slight acceleration, staying near or along the northern Gulf Coast for the next couple of days before eventually turning toward the Texas coastline. Gradual weakening is expected over the next several days, and the storm’s minimum central pressure was measured at 998 millibars as of the 4 a.m. advisory. A westward track along the coast is the scenario Gulf Shores and Orange Beach officials quietly prefer in weak systems — close enough that the threat gets taken seriously, far enough offshore that the beaches keep their sand.
Dauphin Island and the barrier islands to its west spent the night of the closest approach as the coastal communities nearest the center, and their experience of Bertha is instructive for anyone new to the Gulf Coast. The island’s single road, low elevation and direct Gulf exposure make it the earliest and most sensitive indicator of what a system is doing; when Dauphin Island reports only gusty squalls, the mainland beaches behind it are almost certainly seeing less. Town officials there make closure and reopening decisions on their own timelines, and the island’s quick return to normal after a brush like this one is part of why its residents ride out the season with a practiced calm that surprises newcomers.
Offshore, the energy industry’s role in the story continued as it always does. The platforms and rigs of the Mississippi Canyon — the deepwater blocks southeast of the delta — double as the Gulf’s most useful weather stations, reporting sustained winds and gusts from instruments positioned exactly where forecasters need them. Those readings, relayed through the National Hurricane Center’s advisories, are one reason coastal forecasts have improved so much over the decades: the Gulf is one of the most instrumented bodies of water on earth, and a storm like Bertha cannot move without being measured.
For boaters and fishermen along the Alabama coast, the advice through mid-week remained the same as it always is when a tropical system passes west: stay tied up until the flags and the small-craft advisories say otherwise. The chop left behind by a passing storm lingers longer than the storm itself, and the sandbars and channels that shift with every surge make even familiar routes worth rechecking. The charter fleets at Orange Beach and the fishing camps around Mobile Bay have seen enough of these passes to know that the fish will still be there when the water settles — and so will the summer.
The shifting track also brought changes to the watches and warnings posted along the coast. The Tropical Storm Warning that had covered areas east of the Okaloosa-Walton county line in Florida was discontinued with the latest advisory. A Tropical Storm Warning remains in place from the Okaloosa-Walton county line westward to Morgan City, Louisiana, covering the New Orleans metro area and Lake Pontchartrain, while a Tropical Storm Watch continues from west of Morgan City to Cameron, Louisiana, and for Lake Maurepas. The map that emerges from those changes tells the story of the storm: Alabama and the Panhandle easing out of the threat box, Louisiana and eventually Texas watching a weakening system drift their way.
For New Orleans, the residual warning is routine business for a city that treats every tropical system as a rehearsal. Drainage pumps, levee districts and parish emergency offices monitor even weak storms closely, because a slow-moving rain band parked over the metro area can flood streets regardless of the storm’s category. Bertha’s 50 mph winds pose little structural threat, but the combination of saturated ground, storm surge on lakes and bays, and bands of heavy rain keeps the warning worthwhile as the center passes west of the Mississippi.
Along the Alabama shoreline, rough surf is expected to persist at Orange Beach and Gulf Shores through Wednesday, though conditions should improve quickly as Bertha continues its slow push farther west. Beach safety officials are still urging anyone headed to the sand to check posted flag conditions before going in the water and to follow guidance from local beach safety patrols. Rough surf after a tropical passage is precisely when swimmers get into trouble: the waves that look manageable from the beach hide longshore currents and rip currents running parallel to and away from shore, and the Gulf’s warm water makes it feel safer than it is.
Reading the flags before the water
The flag warning system used at Alabama’s public beaches is simple to read and meant to be obeyed. A green flag means calm conditions, yellow signals moderate surf and calls for caution, a single red flag means high hazard with strong currents and rough waves, a double red flag closes the water entirely, and a purple flag warns of dangerous marine life such as jellyfish or stingrays. During tropical passage and its aftermath, the flags can change within hours, and the lifeguards and patrol officers who set them are reading conditions the average visitor cannot see from the sand. Vacationers arriving mid-week, unaware a storm has just passed, are the typical victims of post-storm surf — which is why officials pair every storm advisory with a reminder to check the flags first.
The season context matters too. As the second named storm of the year, Bertha arrived on the calendar at a point when the Atlantic basin is still warming toward its statistical peak, and coastal emergency managers treat every early-season system as a rehearsal for the storms that follow. Fuel, generators, evacuation routes and communication checks all get exercised in an event like this one, and Baldwin County’s emergency agency used the passing storm to run through its notifications without any of the consequences a stronger system would bring.
By the time the weekend arrives, the most visible trace of Bertha on the Alabama coast may be the sand rearranged along the beachfront and the sheets of weed washed into the swash zone. The storm that had the coast braced on Tuesday will be a Louisiana and Texas problem by then, weakening as it goes — and Gulf Shores and Orange Beach will get back to the business of summer, with one more advisory in the logbook and the flag poles doing the talking.