Bertha weakens to tropical depression, bringing heavy rain to South Carolina
Bertha came in fast and furious, but the tropical storm weakened Wednesday to a depression that will drench an already rain-saturated South Carolina.
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The storm made landfall along the coast east of Charleston, according to the National Hurricane Center.
Bertha is forecast to cross northern South Carolina and into central North Carolina by Wednesday night, the center said. Residents may get as much as 8 inches of rain in the eastern and central parts of South Carolina as Bertha moves on into North Carolina and southwest Virginia.
"Given very saturated antecedent conditions, this rainfall may produce life-threatening flash flooding, aggravate and prolong ongoing river flooding, and produce rapid out of bank rises on smaller rivers," the hurricane center said.
The second named tropical system of the year, Bertha began as a tropical disturbance that brought holiday weekend flooding to Florida.
As it moved off the Florida coast, the system gained energy from the warm ocean water.
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The storm made landfall less than two hours after the National Hurricane Center named it Bertha.
Bertha's maximum sustained winds at landfall were 50 mph, up slightly from when it was named an hour before.
Since 1900 having two named storms before the official start of hurricane season -- June 1 -- has only happened five times, said Phil Klotzbach research scientist in the Department of Atmospheric Science at Colorado State University.
Three of those have been since 2012, including this year.
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