Hurricane Dolly (2008) and warm sea surface temperatures. Dolly strengthened steadily beginning on July 21, and by the afternoon of July 22, it strengthened into a Category 1 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale. At this point, the storm was located about 165 mi (265 km) east-southeast of Brownsville, Texas. Steady strengthening continued that evening and into the morning of July 23, at which point Dolly reached Category 2 intensity while just east of the Rio Grande Valley at 10:00 that morning with winds of up to 100 mph (160 km/h) and a minimum central pressure of 963 mbar. At 1:00 pm CDT
Hurricane Bertha (1996) occurred, and Bertha became a Category 1 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson hurricane scale, the first hurricane of the season, prior to moving through the northern Leeward Islands. Late on July 8, a period of rapid intensification began, and at 0600 UTC on July 9, Bertha reached its peak intensity with maximum sustained winds of with a minimum barometric pressure of . Moving around the western periphery of the subtropical ridge, Bertha passed north of the Bahamas as a weakening hurricane before turning towards the north-northeast and undergoing another period of rapid intensification. Late on July 12, Bertha made landfall between