Meteorological History
On July 1, a tropical wave emerged off of the coast of Africa. On July 3, a weak low-level circulation developed while located 500 miles (800 km) south of Cape Verde. The disturbance moved westward, and on July 5, it strengthened into a tropical depression in the central Atlantic. The depression tracked westward across the open waters of the Atlantic along the western periphery of a subtropical ridge. Later that day, the depression was upgraded to a tropical storm. Over the next three days, Bertha tracked west-northwest while gradual intensification was occurring. On July 7, Tropical Storm Bertha was upgraded to a hurricane with sustained winds of 75 mph (120 km/h) while east of Guadeloupe.
The next day, the center of circulation passed over Antigua as Bertha traversed the extreme northeastern portion of the Caribbean Sea causing moderate to minor damages. After that, Bertha passed rapidly in the southern portion of Sint Maarten, 10 months after Hurricane Luis ravaged the island as a strong category 1 hurricane causing moderate damage to homes,and uprooted trees, sunk boats. Pressure fall to 985 mb and gust over 75 mph (120 km/h) in the Princess Juliana Airport. The storm gradually turned to the northwest on July 9 as maximum sustained winds reached 100 knots (190 km/h) while located 120 miles (190 km) northwest of Puerto Rico. Because the highest winds were located on the northeastern portion of the circulation, Puerto Rico received only tropical storm force winds near 50 mph. Forward speed slowed to 15 mph (25 km/h) as Bertha passed within 60 miles (100 km) of the Turks and Caicos, just before reaching its peak intensity.
Continuing its gradual turn, the track soon became north-northwest as the forward speed slowed further to 10 mph (16 km/h) on July 10 and July 11. On July 12, Bertha made landfall between Wrightsville Beach and Topsail Beach. Bertha lost hurricane intensity just after landfall. It then accelerated to the northeast along the East Coast of the United States, producing winds of up to 60 mph (100 km/h). It moved north, and lost all of its tropical characteristics by July 18.
Read more about this topic: Hurricane Bertha (1996)
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