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Tropical Storm Bertha forms in Gulf, heads for southeast Louisiana 2%
By Kasey Bubnash16% Marco Cartolano2%
7/20/2026, 5:04:00 PM
BS Summary: This article contains 4 faulty reasoning types, including Overconfidence Bias, Ambiguity (Equivocation), and Attempt to Sell a Product or Service, with Representativeness Heuristic as the most egregious example at 5.8% saturation with 28 hits. Analysis detected 80 faulty-reasoning hits from 486 analyzed words, generating a BS Score of 9.9% and a BS Rank of 2% (21,590 of 21,887 articles). This article is better (less manipulative) than 98.60% of the article peer group.
Tropical Storm Bertha formed in the Gulf on Monday, becoming the second named storm of the 2026 Atlantic hurricane season and prompting storm preparations as it heads for southeast Louisiana.
The storm could bring tropical storm-force winds, bouts of rain that could cause flash flooding and up to 4 feet of storm surge to parts of southeast Louisiana, forecasters with the National Hurricane Center said.
NHC forecasters issued a tropical storm watch at 10 a.m.
Monday from the Ochlockonee River in Florida westward to Jefferson and Plaquemines parishes.
They also issued a storm surge watch stretching from the Alabama and Florida border to the mouth of the Mississippi River in southeast Louisiana.
The storm was about 110 miles south of Panama City, Florida, as of 7 p.m., producing winds of 40 mph.
It was slowly drifting west-northwest at 3 mph.
Forecasters said Bertha will make landfall just south of New Orleans in Plaquemines Parish late Wednesday or early Thursday morning.
Lightweight and unsecured outdoor items could be blown around and tree limbs could be downed in some areas, leading to the potential for isolated power outages, Manning said.
Tornadoes appear unlikely, mostly due to the fact that the majority of the storm’s impacts are expected to remain over the water.
Between 2 and 4 inches of rain could fall along the coast of southeast Louisiana starting on Wednesday and continuing through Thursday, though cities inland could see less rain.
Minor to moderate coastal flooding is possible, and some localized flash flooding could also occur in urban areas, according to the NWS.
Storm surge along the mouth of the Mississippi River east to the Alabama-Florida border could reach between 2 and 4 feet.
Along Lake Pontchartrain’s shores, storm surge could reach 1 to 3 feet.
Manning emphasized that there is still lower than normal confidence in the storm’s intensity forecast, and adjustments to local weather predictions will likely be necessary.
Rainfall amounts will depend highly on Bertha’s eventual track.
Bertha follows only Tropical Storm Arthur, which became the first storm of the 2026 season last month, dropping several inches of rain on Louisiana and causing minor flooding.
Based on data collected by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration from 1991 to 2020, an average Atlantic hurricane season produces 14 named storms, seven hurricanes, and three major hurricanes of Category 3 strength or more.
Running from June 1 through Nov. 30, the first named storm typically forms in mid to late June, the first hurricane in early to mid-August, and the first major hurricane in late August or early September.
Two named storms have usually formed by mid-July.
NOAA is forecasting eight to 14 named storms this season.
Of those, three to six are expected to become hurricanes, and one to three of those are expected to reach at least Category 3 strength.
Email Kasey Bubnash at kasey.bubnash@theadvocate.com.
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