Tropical Storm Bertha made landfall in Louisiana on Wednesday afternoon, July 22, 2026, and is now tracking westward along the northern Gulf Coast toward the upper Texas coast. Forecasters expect it to move inland Thursday evening before dissipating overnight or early Friday.

As of Thursday morning, the storm's maximum sustained winds were holding near 45 mph (75 km/h) with higher gusts, according to the National Hurricane Center's Advisory Number 17, issued at 10:00 AM CDT by the NWS Weather Prediction Center in College Park, Maryland. An Air Force Reserve reconnaissance aircraft — essentially a flying weather station that flies into storms to gather data — reported a minimum central pressure of 1004 mb (29.65 inches), with the center located at latitude 29.6 North, longitude 93.2 West. That places it roughly 35 miles south of Lake Charles, Louisiana, and 100 miles east-northeast of Galveston, Texas.

Bertha was moving due west at 10 mph (17 km/h), and NHC forecasters anticipated some increase in forward speed over the next 24 hours. Tropical-storm-force winds (winds between 39 and 73 mph) extended outward up to 160 miles (260 km) from the center. Little change in strength was expected before the system reaches the Texas coast, after which rapid weakening is forecast as it interacts with inland terrain.

Tropical storm warnings remained in effect Thursday morning from Morgan City, Louisiana, westward to Sargent, Texas. The warning area east of Morgan City was discontinued, reflecting the storm's westward progression. By Thursday morning the western end of the warning had shifted further to Sargent, consistent with the storm's trajectory. An earlier advisory (Advisory 14, issued at 2100 UTC on July 22) had recorded Bertha's maximum sustained winds at 40 knots with a minimum central pressure of 1000 mb, moving west at 6 knots — indicating modest intensification and acceleration over the intervening period.

The NHC forecast storm surge of 1 to 2 feet above ground from Port Bolivar, Texas, to Port Fourchon, Louisiana, if peak surge coincides with high tide. Storm surge is the rise in seawater level caused by a storm's winds pushing water onshore. A coastal flood warning was in effect for Lower St. Mary Parish, Louisiana, where 2 to 3 feet of inundation was expected along the coast. The combination of storm surge and tide was expected to push rising waters into normally dry areas near the immediate coastline. AccuWeather lead hurricane expert Alex DaSilva identified the system's primary impacts as locally heavy rain, gusty coastal winds, and storm-surge-driven coastal flooding.

Rainfall totals of 2 to 4 inches were forecast along the Texas Gulf Coast and South Texas through Thursday night, with isolated amounts reaching 6 inches. The NHC flagged potential flash flooding, particularly in urban areas with limited drainage capacity. Swells generated by Bertha were propagating westward along the northern and northwestern Gulf Coast and were likely to produce life-threatening surf and rip current conditions, a hazard extending well beyond the storm's direct path.

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 to weak tropical-storm force (up to 40 mph) along the immediate coast. Further inland, 20 to 30 mph gusts were anticipated as the day progressed. As of July 22, damage from the storm appeared limited, though that assessment preceded the system's expected second landfall on the Texas coast.

The broader context here is that Bertha, while not an intense system by standard Saffir-Simpson metrics (the scale that rates hurricanes from Category 1 to 5), compounds a hazard profile typical of Gulf Coast tropical storms: modest wind speeds paired with surge and rainfall impacts that disproportionately affect low-lying coastal infrastructure. The 160-mile radius of tropical-storm-force winds means a wide swath of coastline experiences hazardous conditions even well removed from the center. For emergency managers in the Houston-Galveston corridor and the Louisiana parishes between Morgan City and Cameron, the operational challenge lies less in wind damage mitigation than in managing surge-driven coastal flooding and urban flash flooding, particularly given the system's slow forward speed — at 6 to 10 mph, that allows prolonged rainfall over the same drainages. The storm's rapid dissipation forecast upon moving inland limits the duration of the threat but does not reduce its peak intensity window.

The NHC will continue issuing advisories as the system tracks inland, with the next key milestone being Bertha's expected dissipation over Texas late Thursday night or Friday.