Tropical Storm Bertha Grazes The Caribbean

A surfer wades into high waves in Puerto Rico on Sunday (AP Photo)

I have an interest in all things weather, especially severe weather.  The power of nature truly fascinates me. It's not even just a base desire to gawk at disaster.  I honestly like to learn about how weather and severe weather work and it drives our planet's climate.

So needless to say hurricane season is always a fascinating time for me.  For years I listened to "The Barometer Bob Show" podcast on the internet.  The host, Robert Brookens, unfortunately had to shut his show down due to health issues, but every hurricane season he took to the internet to help educate folks on how these monster storms work and how to be prepared for them.

Of course, attention on these storms has been renewed in the last 10 years after several huge storms like Katrina, Rita, and Sandy have hit the USA.  Of course a few weeks back Hurricane Arthur struck the outer banks of North Carolina and caused some flooding and damage, but didn't turn out to be any kind of real disaster.

Luckily the storm currently in the Atlantic, Tropical Storm Bertha, doesn't seem like it's going to be too much of a bother to anyone.  This weekend Bertha grazed parts of the Caribbean, passing over the Dominican Republic and taking a swipe at the Turks and Caicos Islands.   Some folks in these locations were evacuated, but it doesn't look like there has been any significant damage done as of Sunday night.  In fact, Bertha brought the area some much needed rain and created some high waves for surfers like the man pictured above.

As of this writing Bertha has max sustained winds of 65 mph and is starting to pull away from the Southern Bahamas.  She is forecast to become a hurricane in the coming days, but the National Hurricane Center forecasts the storm to stay well east of the US mainland and also to miss Bermuda.

There is perhaps a bit of warning here though.  Even though this has been forecast to be a fairly slow hurricane season, it only takes one to mess up the lives of folks in coastal areas, and we're getting to the point from mid-August to mid-September when the climate is most favorable for hurricanes to develop.  So if you're on the coast, heads up, but you already know that.  For the rest of us, don't forget to have your own emergency supplies on hand and be prepared for other hazards like wildfires, tornadoes, or earthquakes.