Tropical Storm Bertha, the second named storm of the Atlantic hurricane season, was centred about 170km south-southeast of Mobile, Alabama, as of Tuesday evening, according to the National Hurricane Center. Packing maximum sustained winds of 60mph and moving west at 6mph, the storm was expected to make landfall in Louisiana late Wednesday, with gradual weakening forecast through Friday, the hurricane centre said. Michael Buchanan, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Louisiana, told the Associated Press that landfall was expected Wednesday night somewhere in the coastal and lightly populated part of Louisiana southeast of New Orleans.

Tropical storm warnings stretched from Florida’s Panhandle westward into coastal Louisiana, including metropolitan New Orleans and Lake Pontchartrain, the hurricane centre said. The main threat from Bertha was expected to be heavy rainfall and localised flooding, with several inches of rain forecast along parts of the central Gulf Coast from western Florida to southern Louisiana through Thursday. Chevron said it was shutting in production at its Petronius facility in the Gulf as a precaution and moving all associated personnel onshore, and was also transporting nonessential personnel from two other platforms.

Farther north, the National Weather Service warned that numerous severe thunderstorms were expected from the Ohio Valley into the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast states, with swaths of damaging wind gusts likely and some tornadoes possible. More than 2,000 flights were canceled Tuesday, with airports in New York City, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C., affected. Ground stops were issued at airports in New York City, D.C., Boston, and Baltimore, according to ABC News. At least three tornadoes were reported in Pennsylvania and New Jersey. New York City had been under a tornado watch for Tuesday night but that was rescinded, the National Weather Service said. Severe thunderstorm watches were in effect from Missouri to Virginia, including Louisville, Charleston, Cincinnati and Pittsburgh.

From the Mexican perspective, the Servicio Meteorológico Nacional (SMN) reported that Bertha was located approximately 860km north of Cabo Catoche, Quintana Roo, and that the system did not generate effects on Mexican territory. No alerts or special recommendations were issued for the population, the SMN said, though it maintained constant monitoring of the storm’s trajectory. The storm was expected to weaken to a tropical depression before entering Texas in the following days, according to the SMN. Bertha is forecast to make landfall Wednesday night, with gradual weakening expected through Friday.