TS Bertha
I had hoped that storm 93L was beginning to dissipate but I was incorrect … it hung on and finally, last night, began to really get organized. As of the 2 AM tropical outlook, the storm has been upgraded by the NHC as a tropical storm. It has been named TS Bertha.
According to the 5 AM advisory, Bertha had winds of 45 MPH and a central pressure of 1008 MB. The storm was traveling towards the west northwest at 20 MPH, which is a bit fast. The forward speed has been much higher than in larger storms and has brought Bertha almost to the Windward Islands. Tropical storm warnings have been issued for Puerto Rico, the U.S. and British Virgin Islands and several other places.
As for the future, the tracks provided by Weather Underground predict that the center of the storm will avoid land and turn first towards the north then towards the northeast, taking it between the U.S. coast and Bermuda in five or six days. The storm’s closest approach to the Georgia coast would be around 4 AM next Tuesday. Those tracks will change, but I don’t think they will change very much.