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Bertha weakens to Category 1 hurricane

The first hurricane of the 2008 Atlantic storm season continued to weaken Tuesday, dropping to a Category 1 storm with 85 mph winds, the U.S. National Hurricane Center reported.
Bertha Continues To Grow In Caribbean
In this satellite image, Hurricane Bertha is seen Tuesday morning southeast of Bermuda.NOAA via Getty Images
/ Source: Reuters

Hurricane Bertha weakened rapidly as it headed in the direction of Bermuda on Tuesday, just a day after suddenly burgeoning into the first major hurricane of the 2008 Atlantic storm season.

Bertha had begun a northerly turn that would likely spare the U.S. East Coast from a hurricane or tropical storm strike, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said.

The Gulf of Mexico, where the United States produces a third of its domestic crude oil and a large amount of its natural gas, was well out of the firing line.

Bertha, which on Monday became a powerful Category 3 hurricane on the five-step Saffir-Simpson scale, had dropped back to Category 1 by 5 p.m. ET on Tuesday with top sustained winds of 85 mph, the Miami-based center said in an advisory.

"Bertha's rapid intensification yesterday has been equaled by its rapid weakening today," it said. "Such intensity fluctuations remain a forecasting challenge and serve as an important reminder for the uncertainties associated with intensity forecasts."

The center said Bertha could weaken further in the next 24 hours as cooler waters, dry air and unfavorable atmospheric wind conditions affected the storm. But some computer models showed the hurricane regaining some strength after that.

The wealthy mid-Atlantic British colony of Bermuda would have to continue to keep an eye on the storm as it drifted toward the island, the hurricane center said.

Forecasters have predicted an average or above-average six-month hurricane season this year, although nothing like record-busting 2005 when 28 tropical storms formed, including Hurricane Katrina.

The Atlantic storm season, which begins on June 1, rarely gets into high gear before August.

The record 2005 season, which included Katrina, the hurricane that swamped New Orleans and killed 1,500 people on the U.S. Gulf Coast, saw 28 named storms form.

Bertha formed last Thursday near the Cape Verde islands off Africa. It is unusual for storms to form so far east so early in the season, and when it does happen, it is frequently a harbinger of heightened storm activity.

The first named storm this year, Arthur, formed in the Atlantic the day before the season officially started June 1 and soaked the Yucatan Peninsula. It did not go above tropical storm status.