…Tropical Depression Two is in the Atlantic, near the Cape Verde Islands. Folks, it’s awful rare that something forms that far out this early in the season (as this Weather Underground graph bears out). As a result, NHC isn’t expecting it to flare up too terribly much beyond tropical storm strength for the next five days. Here’s the Hurricane Center’s five-day forecast for TD Two, keeping in mind the high potential for variability in this forecast. The computer models have reasonable consistency in recurving the storm off, but it’s good to keep an eye on things regardless because things can and occasionally do change.
If TD Two becomes a tropical storm (which is likely in the next day or so), it will be Tropical Storm Bertha. The last Bertha was in 2002, and rained a LOT on Texas. 1996’s flavor of Bertha started fairly far out in the Atlantic in mid-July, and caused some problems along the Outer Banks and in Wilmington (and made for a very thrilling kite-flying experience for me here in Charleston).
Update: Tropical Storm Bertha has been officially classified, packing 40 MPH winds moving west-northwest at 14 MPH.
