Tropical Storm Bertha develops in the northern Gulf of Mexico, eventually making landfall in Louisiana
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.
===== 22 July Update =====
1-minute GOES-19 Visible and Infrared Window images (above) showed that the fully-exposed eye of Tropical Storm Bertha moved inland across southeastern Louisiana after making landfall at 1900 UTC on 22 July. A small convective burst developed just south of the eye as Bertha moved inland. The highest wind gust associated with Bertha was 63 mph at METAR site KIKT.