Hurricane Bertha (2008) Hurricane Bertha (2008) Hurricane Bertha was the longest-lived Atlantic tropical cyclone on record during July, and it also attained tropical storm intensity farther east than any other system on record during the month. The second named storm, first hurricane, and first major hurricane of the active 2008 season, Bertha developed into a tropical depression on July 3 from a tropical wave that departed western Africa two days prior. On a west-northwest to northwest track, the depression intensified into Tropical Storm Bertha six hours formation and ultimately attained hurricane intensity on July 7. A period of rapid deepening brought the cyclone
Bertha Benz hope." In 2008, the Bertha Benz Memorial Route was officially approved as a route of the industrial heritage of mankind, because it follows Bertha Benz's path during the world's first long-distance journey by automobile in 1888. Now it is possible to follow the 194 km of signs indicating her route from Mannheim via Heidelberg to Pforzheim (Black Forest) and back. The "Bertha Benz Challenge", embedded in the framework of the ceremony of "Automobile Summer 2011", the big official German event and birthday party commemorating the invention of the automobile by Karl Benz over , took place on Bertha Benz Memorial