Space City Weather meteorologists say Tropical Storm Bertha is already weakening and won’t likely have a measurable impact on the Houston area — but just in case, CenterPoint Energy has activated its emergency operations center and is prepared for potential severe weather.
Bria Bolden, a spokeswoman for CenterPoint Energy, said the power company activates its EOC based on weather conditions, meteorology reports and its Technosylva outage model. “We’re prepared for the potential of severe weather, with heavy emphasis on the word potential,” Bolden said Tuesday afternoon. The spokeswoman said CenterPoint was not offering any executives to do media interviews and wasn’t planning any press conferences at this time.
That’s a pretty good indicator that “Big Bertha” may not live up to her name.
Nonetheless, CenterPoint, which serves about 2.8 million customers in the greater Houston area, has proactively mobilized 1,050 frontline personnel to respond to storm-related outages and secured an additional 1,100 contractors to support restoration efforts if needed, officials said in a press release.
As of Tuesday afternoon, the National Hurricane Center was predicting that Tropical Storm Bertha would weaken upon approach to the southeast Texas coastline, arriving on Friday as a tropical depression or post-tropical area of low pressure.
Even if there’s not heavy rainfall, power outages can occur during high winds, and gusts of up to 35 mph are predicted. CenterPoint Energy customers are urged to enroll in Power Alert Service for outage alerts.
Space City Weather meteorologist Matt Lanza’s latest forecast suggests there may not be much need for storm alerts in this area.
“Tropical Storm Bertha is expected to fall apart before reaching the Texas Coast,” Lanzaa wrote on Tuesday morning. “While there is a slight chance of showers by Friday in Houston, it’s more likely that this week is just hot, with 100s likely Thursday. More hot weather continues into next week.”
Despite Bertha not really looking like a tropical storm, Lanza says it meets the definition and is supposed to reach the upper Texas coast as a depression on Thursday night.
“The thought is that shower and thunderstorm chances would increase on Friday but even that may be a stretch,” Lanza writes. “Realistic impacts would be slightly elevated tides and perhaps some breezy northeast winds (20-30 mph) in Galveston Thursday or Friday. Beyond that? It seems unlikely at this point that we’ll see anything more. And it may be generous to assume Bertha even survives the trip.”
Texans in the Houston area should, however, remain vigilant about protecting themselves from the heat. Temperatures inched toward 100 on Wednesday and Lanza warned that the heat advisories will likely remain in effect through next week. On Tuesday, the city of Houston’s Office of Emergency Management texted out a high temperature AlertHouston Heat Advisory/Warning and its website offered heat safety tips and a way to sign up for alerts.
“When does it end?” Lanza asked. “The humorous answer would be after August. The more realistic answer is that temperatures may slowly adjust down some with gradually increasing rain chances later next week. We shall see. In the meantime, buckle up if you’ve been waiting for this sort of weather, or become a recluse if you’ve been dreading this sort of weather. It’s going to be a little bit.”
