Tropical Storm Bertha formed Monday evening in the Gulf of Mexico south of the Florida Panhandle as it drifts erratically toward populated coastal areas, bringing a threat of heavy rain, storm surge and damaging wind gusts.
Meanwhile, in the eastern Pacific Ocean, Hurricane Fausto formed far from Mexico’s Baja California peninsula and posed no threat to land Monday night.
The center of Bertha was located about 110 miles (180 km) south of Panama City, Florida. Maximum sustained winds were around 40 mph, according to an evening advisory from the Miami-based National Hurricane Center.
The slow-moving storm has been drifting erratically, but is expected to stay near or along the northern Gulf coast early this week, bringing heavy rainfall to areas of northern Florida, Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana as it pushes westward toward Texas. Forecasters said some additional strengthening is expected in the coming hours.
Environmental News Archive



Five family members who had set out for a day of hiking were killed after a flash flood swept through canyons of southern Utah on Friday, law enforcement officials said.
A century-old water pipe buried below a bustling boulevard in a Los Angeles county city burst early Thursday, sending a shock of water spewing into the streets and snarling traffic as several major roads shut down.
A key government agency is proposing to lessen the scope of environmental reviews for nuclear reactors, limiting public input and exempting some reactors altogether.
Lake Powell, the US’s second-largest reservoir, threatens to plunge to unprecedentedly low levels this year after a historically bleak snowpack failed to raise its water level, scientists and water experts have said, adding renewed urgency to stalled talks over how to conserve a water source depended on by tens of millions of people in the US south-west.
Super Typhoon Bavi is bringing intense winds to the remote U.S. territories of Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands, as forecasters warn of the potential for severe damage.





























