Overview
- The National Hurricane Center has located the system about 100 miles south of the eastern Florida Panhandle with roughly 35 mph sustained winds and has issued tropical-storm watches from the Ochlockonee River west to the Alabama‑Mississippi border.
- Forecasters expect the depression to become Tropical Storm Bertha soon and warn of coastal storm surge of about 1 to 3 feet, tropical‑force winds, and heavy rain that could produce flash flooding along the northern Gulf coast.
- Models diverge on intensity and track, with one scenario showing rapid inland weakening that spreads heavy rain inland and another showing strengthening over the Gulf that concentrates impacts on the coast.
- A Hurricane Hunter reconnaissance flight is scheduled to sample the system to measure winds, pressure, and the surrounding environment, and those observations are likely to change short‑term forecasts and warnings.
- Other hazards affecting broad U.S. regions include wildfire smoke lowering air quality over the Great Lakes, a frontal zone that may produce severe storms and flash floods in the Midwest and Northeast, and persistent extreme heat in the central U.S.