The Gulf Coast’s second tropical system of the season developed off the west coast of Florida, prompting tropical storm watches across the Florida Panhandle and days of rough surf, rip currents and heavy rain along the Alabama coast. Forecasters tracked the system, known as Tropical Depression Two, as it slowly organized in the eastern Gulf before strengthening into Tropical Storm Bertha.
The depression formed from a well-defined area of low pressure and spent its early days nearly stationary, roughly 290 miles southeast of Mobile and 250 miles south-southeast of Pensacola, with maximum sustained winds near 30 mph. It later began a slow north-northwestward drift, with forecasters expecting the system to eventually turn west while staying close to the northern Gulf Coast for several days.
The National Weather Service in Mobile issued a tropical storm watch for Florida’s Escambia, Okaloosa and Santa Rosa coastal areas as the system organized, warning of locally heavy rainfall, tropical-storm-force wind gusts along the immediate coast and the potential for a few isolated waterspouts or brief tornadoes near the shoreline. Air Force Hurricane Hunters flew missions into the system to gather data as forecasters refined the track and intensity forecast.
Along the Alabama coast, the most consistent threats were rip currents and rough surf, with forecasters warning of a high risk of dangerous swimming conditions for several days as the storm approached. Rainfall totals of up to eight inches were possible across the eastern and central Gulf Coast, stretching from western Florida into southern Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana. The system arrived roughly a month after Tropical Storm Arthur dropped torrential rain and caused flash flooding across north Baldwin County and the Eastern Shore.
Forecasters said the system was not expected to become a hurricane or a strong tropical storm, and elevated rain chances were not expected to produce a total washout for the region. By the end of the week, the storm tracked away from coastal Alabama, and rain chances across South Alabama returned to typical summertime patterns.