Tropical Storm Bertha Named, Not Likely to Affect Ocean City

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The Burcaw family's commercial lobster boat "Two Dukes" is moored at a lagoon in Sea Isle's historic Fish Alley.

An early model for the probability of tropical storm force winds (39 mph or greater) from Tropical Storm Bertha. Yellow represents a 40 percent chance. The 2014 hurricane season in the Atlantic Ocean has its second named system, but Tropical Storm Bertha is not likely to affect Ocean City in any significant way. The projected track of the storm takes Bertha up the Atlantic Ocean parallel to the East Coast of the U.S. It's a tropical storm track that often creates the big and clean waves that surfers crave, but Bertha could be too weak and too distant to generate much surf — though the long-range forecast is still uncertain. Some models suggest a 3- to 5-foot swell on Wednesday. At 8 a.m. Friday, Bertha had sustained winds of 45 mph and was headed toward Barbados and the Caribbean. The National Hurricane Center does not anticipate significant strengthening in the next 48 hours. But as the storm turns north on a projected arc over the open water of the Atlantic Ocean, it could intensify, according to the Hurricane Center forecast. Bertha would pass Ocean City far out to sea on Tuesday or Wednesday, according to the early models for the storm track.

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