Hurricane Bertha Set to Regain Strength in Atlantic
Date: 10-Jul-08
Country: US
By 11 a.m. EDT (1500 GMT), Bertha was still a Category 1 storm on the five-step Saffir-Simpson scale of hurricane intensity as it churned 715 miles (1,150 km) southeast of Bermuda.
But the US National Hurricane Center said in its path lay warm waters, which provide fuel for tropical storms and hurricanes, and that unfavorable atmospheric wind conditions that had weakened Bertha abruptly on Tuesday were dissipating.
"The atmosphere appears favorable for strengthening and the ocean is plenty warm," the Miami-based hurricane center said in a discussion item on the storm.
Bertha formed last week near the Cape Verde islands off Africa, and on Monday powered itself up into a major Category 3 hurricane with winds over 115 mph (185 kph).
Its formation so far east so early in the season that began on June 1 and its explosive growth from a tropical storm into a major hurricane could be seen as harbingers of a busy summer.
Hurricane experts have predicted the six-month season, which rarely gets into high gear before August, would see an average or above-average number of storms and hurricanes, though nothing like record-busting 2005, when 28 storms formed, including Hurricane Katrina.
At 11 a.m., Bertha's top sustained winds were at 75 mph (120 kph), barely over the threshold at which tropical storms are classified as hurricanes.
It was moving west-northwest near 12 mph (19 kph) and was expected to turn more to the north on a course that most likely would take it well to the east of Bermuda, a wealthy offshore financial center with a population of 66,000.
It was highly unlikely that the storm would target the US East Coast, hurricane experts said, and the Gulf of Mexico, where the United States produces a third of its domestic crude oil, has been out of the firing line for days.
Bermuda, though, still needed to keep an eye on Bertha, the hurricane center said.
(Reporting by Michael Christie, Editing by Jane Sutton)
