The storm moved ashore along the Texas-Louisiana border on Thursday afternoon, with flooding rain expected to last through Thursday night.
Published Jul 22, 2026 9:45 AM EDT
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Updated Jul 23, 2026 11:36 PM EDT
Impacts from Bertha were fairly limited on July 22, but its storm surge did cause significant coastal flooding across Louisiana, Alabama and Mississippi.
Following its first landfall in far eastern portions of St. Bernard Parish, Louisiana, on Wednesday afternoon, Tropical Rainstorm Bertha is now tracking across Texas, where downpours will be felt through Thursday night.
Even though Bertha is far from some of the powerhouse hurricanes that have struck the central Gulf Coast over the years, its impacts from heavy rain should not be taken lightly.
This image of the Gulf was captured as Tropical Storm Bertha made a second U.S. landfall near the Texas-Louisiana border on Thursday afternoon, July 23, 2026. The center of Bertha was located just to the northeast of the colorful clouds due to northerly wind shear. (AccuWeather Enhanced RealVue™ Satellite)
Bertha is what AccuWeather meteorologists refer to as a homebrew tropical storm because it formed within a few hundred miles of the United States coast—in this case, over the northeastern Gulf. This particular area was under AccuWeather’s watchful eye for well over a week before the storm formed.
“The center of Bertha spent a brief amount of time off the Louisiana coast Wednesday night into Thursday before moving onshore once more near the Texas-Louisiana border around 2 p.m. ET Thursday,” AccuWeather Lead Hurricane Expert Alex DaSilva said.
As of early Thursday evening, Bertha had maximum sustained winds of 35 mph with a low-level circulation west of Houston, Texas. Similar to most of the storm’s life cycle, this circulation has remained separated from most of the thunderstorms to the south.
As the storm continues to track westward, some changes in the structure of the storm’s showers and thunderstorms are likely, with bands of heavy rain forecast to move across South Texas, DaSilva stated.
A swath of 1-2 inches can fall across portions of southern Texas, with pockets of heavier rain anticipated along the immediate path of Bertha from west of Corpus Christi to Laredo, Texas.
Significant rain and flash flooding can extend into the mountainous terrain of northern Mexico at the end of the week.
Localized heavy rain could extend beyond the immediate Texas coast and reach into the central parts of the state, even back to the Texas Hill Country. Localized flash flooding will still be possible in this portion of Texas.
Bertha is a less than one on the AccuWeather RealImpact™ Scale for Hurricanes.
Much of Bertha’s problematic winds are most likely to occur briefly in squalls and thunderstorms. These winds can bring down some trees and cause localized power outages.
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Storm surge of 2-3 feet was observed across portions of the Florida Panhandle and coastal portions of Alabama and Mississippi, as well as in southeastern Louisiana earlier this week.
There is the potential for a few severe thunderstorms to occur along Bertha’s westward path into South Texas. With these, a couple of tornadoes could be spawned.
DaSilva noted that in the wake of Bertha, no additional tropical development is expected across the Atlantic Basin through the rest of July. However, AccuWeather hurricane experts will keep a close eye on the waters of the eastern Gulf and southern Atlantic Seaboard for potential tropical development during the first half of August.
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