Tropical Storm Bertha hit Louisiana on Wednesday afternoon, July 22, 2026, and is now moving west along the Gulf Coast toward Texas. Forecasters expect it to move inland Thursday evening and then fall apart overnight or by Friday.

As of Thursday morning, the storm's top winds were holding near 45 mph (75 km/h), with stronger gusts, according to the National Hurricane Center's Advisory Number 17. A specially equipped Air Force Reserve plane that flies into storms to measure them reported a minimum central pressure of 1004 mb (29.65 inches). The storm's center was located about 35 miles south of Lake Charles, Louisiana, and 100 miles east-northeast of Galveston, Texas.

Bertha was moving west at 10 mph (17 km/h). Forecasters expected it to speed up a bit over the next 24 hours. Winds strong enough to be felt as tropical storm conditions reached up to 160 miles (260 km) outward from the storm's center. Little change in strength was expected before Bertha reaches the Texas coast, after which it should weaken quickly as it moves over land.

Tropical storm warnings — alerts meaning tropical storm conditions are expected — were in effect Thursday morning from Morgan City, Louisiana, westward to Sargent, Texas. The warning area east of Morgan City had been called off, since the storm had already moved past. An earlier advisory on July 22 had recorded Bertha's top winds at 40 knots (about 46 mph) with a pressure of 1000 mb, moving west at 6 knots (about 7 mph). That means the storm grew slightly stronger and moved a bit faster over the following hours.

Forecasters predicted storm surge of 1 to 2 feet above ground level from Port Bolivar, Texas, to Port Fourchon, Louisiana, if the highest surge lines up with high tide. Storm surge is ocean water pushed inland by a storm's winds. A coastal flood warning was in effect for Lower St. Mary Parish, Louisiana, where 2 to 3 feet of flooding was expected along the coast. AccuWeather lead hurricane expert Alex DaSilva said the storm's main impacts would be heavy rain, gusty coastal winds, and coastal flooding from the surge.

Rainfall of 2 to 4 inches was expected along the Texas Gulf Coast through Thursday night, with some spots possibly seeing up to 6 inches. The NHC warned of possible flash flooding, especially in cities where drains can't keep up. Waves from Bertha were also moving west along the Gulf Coast and could create dangerous surf and rip currents — strong channels of water pulling away from shore that can be deadly for swimmers, even far from the storm's center.

On the ground in southeast Texas, the National Weather Service office in Houston/Galveston reported sustained winds of 45 mph in some coastal counties, with gusts up to 40 mph right along the coast. Further inland, gusts of 20 to 30 mph were expected as the day went on. As of July 22, damage from the storm appeared limited, though that was before the storm's expected second landfall on the Texas coast.

The broader context here is that Bertha is not a powerful storm by the usual rating scale, but Gulf Coast tropical storms can still cause outsized problems. Their wind speeds may be modest, but the water they push onshore and the rain they drop can hit low-lying coastal areas hard. Because Bertha's tropical-storm-force winds stretch 160 miles from its center, a huge stretch of coastline feels hazardous conditions even far from where the storm comes ashore. For emergency managers in the Houston-Galveston area and the Louisiana coast, the bigger worry is flooding — both from surge along the coast and from rain overwhelming city drains — especially because the storm is moving slowly enough to dump rain on the same areas for hours. The good news is that Bertha is expected to fall apart quickly once it moves inland, which shortens the window of danger even if the peak impacts are still significant.

The NHC will keep issuing updates as the storm moves inland. The next key moment to watch for is Bertha's expected dissipation over Texas late Thursday night or Friday.