Why This Week Could Be Extra Rainy in Disney World

The second named storm of this year’s Atlantic hurricane season has now strengthened from a tropical depression into a tropical storm.

This year’s storm season is expected to bring fewer storms than normal, but that doesn’t mean we don’t need to pay attention to the ones that do happen. Right now, we’ve got our eye on Tropical Storm Bertha — here’s the latest updates you need to know.

According to USA Today, Tropical Storm Bertha strengthened from a depression on July 20th when the storm was “stationary.” As of 10 PM that night, the storm was located 140 miles south of Panama City, Florida, and about 215 miles southeast of Mobile, Alabama. The storm currently has maximum sustained winds of 40 miles per hour.

The storm is expected to arrive closer to land at 1 PM on Wednesday, and make actual landfall around 1 AM Thursday morning in Louisiana. Tropical storm watches are in effect all along the Gulf coast, as the National Hurricane Center has warned that strong winds, heavy rain and dangerous surf conditions could develop into today, July 21st. A storm surge watch is also in effect from the Alabama-Florida border to the mouth of the Mississippi River.

This storm won’t affect Orlando intensely, other than potentially some rain and wind from the outer bands, but as the storm continues to move closer to Texas, the threat in Orlando will dissipate. The storm is expected to drop around 2-4 inches of rain “with locally higher totals around 8 inches through Friday along the Gulf Coast and adjacent inland locations from western Florida to the Middle Texas Coast, including southern portions of Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana.” Flooding could be made worse due to hard, dense, dry soil, so it’s advised you stay alert.