Tropical Depression Two intensifies to become Tropical Storm Bertha in the northern Gulf of Mexico
1-minute Mesoscale Domain Sector GOES-19 Infrared Window images (above) showed Tropical Storm Bertha as it moved slowly northwestward then westward across the far northern Gulf of Mexico on 21 July 2026. Pulses of overshooting tops exhibited infrared brightness temperatures in the -75 to -80 C range (brighter white pixels). 1-minute GLM Flash Points displayed the lightning activity associated with deep convection near and south of the center of circulation.
1-minute GOES-19 Visible images (below) revealed that Bertha’s low-level circulation center (LLCC) remained partially to fully exposed during the day — since the tropical storm was moving through an environment characterized by high values of northeasterly deep-layer wind shear (1500 UTC | 2100 UTC), which acted to displace most of the deep convection south of the LLCC.
