Tropical Storm Bertha made landfall in Louisiana on Wednesday evening and kept moving toward Texas after coming ashore. By Thursday, it is forecast to approach Texas as a low-end tropical storm, with gusty winds, some surge at the coast and periods of heavy rain.
That is why people in Texas are watching Bertha now. The storm has already crossed one state line in weather terms and is still expected to press toward another, putting the coast in line for the kind of conditions that can quickly complicate travel, flood low spots and batter exposed areas even when a storm is not at its strongest.
The forecast for Texas is straightforward in one sense and uncertain in another. Bertha is expected to remain a low-end tropical storm as it nears the state, which points to weaker overall strength than a major system, but that does not remove the risk of gusty winds, coastal surge and heavy rain. Those impacts can still arrive in bands and bursts, making the storm more than a passing nuisance for communities in its path.
The unusual part is not that Bertha weakened after landfall, but that it still has enough structure to move on toward Texas the next day. That gap between where it came ashore and where it is headed is the story: a storm system affecting the Louisiana-to-Texas corridor, with Texas next in line for the impacts described in the forecast.
For Texas, the answer today is not whether Bertha will matter, but how much. The storm is expected to approach on Thursday, and the next update will be the one that shows whether the coast gets a glancing blow or a closer brush with wind, surge and rain.
