Tropical Storm Bertha

Posted by on August 17, 2020 in Past Storms, Tropical Storm | Comments Off on Tropical Storm Bertha

Tropical Storm Bertha – May 27-28, 2020

Tropical Storm Bertha was our second named storm of the 2020 Atlantic season and affected a bit more area than Tropical Storm Arthur. TS Bertha winds were lower at 50 mph (85 km/h) and the storm’s lowest pressure only reached 1004 mbar. This storm followed Tropical Storm Arthur, which occurred from May 16-20.

Unfortunately, a much broader swath of the Eastern US was affected including Florida, South Carolina, Pennsylvania, Ohio, North Carolina, Virginia, West Virginia, and The Bahamas. The storm produced multiple areas with 4 to 5 inches of rain, as the result property damage was greater than with Arthur.

Luckily, with its fast inland track Tropical Storm Bertha was short-lived preventing more damage. One life was lost attributable to Tropical Storm Bertha. Damages exceeded $200 million and could have been much worse with a slower moving storm.

Below is the map showing the storm’s track and varying points of its severity according to the Saffir-Simpson scale. The triangles indicate tropical depression and the circles indicate tropical storm strength.

Bertha 2020 track

By FleurDeOdile – Created by FleurDeOdile using WikiProject Tropical cyclones/Tracks. The background image is from NASA. Tracking data is from NOAA, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org.