Hurricane Bertha (1996) Hurricane Bertha (1996) Hurricane Bertha was an intense and early-forming major hurricane that affected areas from the Leeward Islands to the United States in July of the 1996 Atlantic hurricane season. The second tropical cyclone and named storm during the season, Bertha originated from a tropical wave that moved off the coast of Africa in early July. Steadily organizing while moving generally towards the west, the disturbance was designated as a tropical depression at 0000 UTC on July 5, and was further upgraded to a tropical storm by 1200 UTC later that day. Over the next few days, continued intensification
Hurricane Bertha (1990) Operationally, forecasters at the National Hurricane Center speculated whether Bertha was transitioning into a subtropical cyclone, due to its deep convection being located, at times, over 200 miles (321.8 km) from the center. However, the convection progressively returned to the center and by late on July 30, Bertha re-intensified into a hurricane as the convection covered the center, about 415 miles (667.8 km) east of where it first formed. Early on July 31, the hurricane briefly attained peak winds of 80 mph (130 km/h) before weakening and accelerated northeastward as the ridge of high pressure was slowly eroded. Bertha maintained