Tropical Storm Bertha Takes Aim at the Gulf Coast — What It Could Mean for Texas
Tropical Storm Bertha continued to churn in the Gulf Tuesday morning, and the National Hurricane Center‘s 4:00 a.m. CDT advisory shows a storm that’s briefly strengthened but is now fighting a losing battle against the atmosphere.
Track-wise, Bertha is drifting northwest at a crawl (about 4 mph) but is expected to turn more westward by midweek as a ridge builds in from the Rockies. A Tropical Storm Warning is now up from Alabama westward to southeastern Louisiana, with a watch extending toward Metro New Orleans and the Florida Panhandle. A storm surge watch remains in effect for Alabama, Mississippi and southeastern Louisiana.
So what about Texas?
The NHC is explicit that Louisiana and Texas interests should keep monitoring the system, since more watches or warnings could be issued. While the heaviest rain and flooding threat still centers on the Florida Big Bend through southern Louisiana, the advisory now flags isolated flash flooding as possible westward into the Texas coast later this week — meaning even a weakening, disorganized Bertha could still toss moisture toward South Texas as it drifts west.
The bottom line: Texas likely won’t see a strong storm, but shouldn’t rule out spillover rain and localized flooding risk by week’s end.
Keep watching the updates.
Forecasts remain fluid; check hurricanes.gov for the latest official updates.
Austin’s ban on watercraft use across Lady Bird Lake, Lake Austin and the Colorado River is scheduled to end at 5 p.m. today, four days after the city barred boats, kayaks, paddleboards and similar vessels amid dangerous flows from historic Hill Country flooding.
The city issued the ban effective immediately on July 17 as floodgate operations by the Lower Colorado River Authority and Austin Water threatened to make waterways unsafe for recreational, commercial and navigational use.
The closures and warnings didn’t stop some people from trying to access flood-impacted waters.
The move came as Lake Travis rose above capacity, prompting the LCRA to open Mansfield Dam floodgates for the first time since 2019. With lake levels stabilizing and the surge of floodwater working its way downstream, officials are set to lift restrictions and reopen the waterways to the public this evening.
For recreational swimmers looking to beat the extreme heat today before the ban is lifted, Austin’s Parks & Recreation Department operates seven municipal swimming pools, plus Barton Springs Pool.
However, one pool is closed for maintenance while another has just reopened.
The Austin City Council is split on whether to introduce a $390 million bond package this November or push it to 2028 to shield residents from a tax hike. If put on the ballot and approved, the funding would distribute:
- Parks: $250 million
- Transportation: $92 million
- Other city needs: Remaining funds for homeless shelters, public facilities, and animal services.
City Council member Krista Laine says she can’t support the bond issue as written.
Meanwhile, an internal audit revealed that Austin frequently fully reimbursed contracted nonprofits despite their failure to deliver agreed-upon services. While city officials noted the issues reflect poor government oversight rather than all social service partners, management has agreed to implement process reforms to address the $100 million annual spending program.
The Austin Independent School District is dissolving its management agreement with the non-profit Texas Council for International Studies.
As a result, the district will continue to directly run Burnet, Dobie, and Webb middle schools this fall. The move follows a rejection by the Texas Education Agency, which denied approval for the partnership despite AISD presenting evidence of positive student outcomes under the plan. (Austin Current)
Downtown Austin’s Pride crosswalk at Fourth and Colorado streets was painted over on Sunday night. (Austin American-Statesman)
Scott Neal is head of the city’s LGBTQ Quality of Life Advisory Commission:
The removal follows a directive from the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT), which warned that cities could lose funding if road markings fail to meet state standards. TxDOT cited the Texas Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices, which prohibits non-standard designs like rainbow crosswalks.
An hours-long investigation and SWAT response in northeast Austin ended Monday morning without a suspect in custody, according to the Austin Police Department.
APD Corporal Jermaine Kilgore stated that officers were dispatched just after 6 a.m. to the 1700 block of Ferguson Lane following reports of an assault involving a weapon.
Kilgore confirmed the male suspect and female victim knew each other.
In San Marcos Monday, US Marshals were searching for a fugitive and briefly issued a shelter-in-place notice for some residents.
Austin police have identified the suspect charged in the shooting death of another man in South Austin over the weekend.
Manor police arrested a man wanted for a homicide that occurred there last September.
Afamefula Bishop Egwu, a 23-year-old black male, is being charged with first-degree murder.
The New Braunfels Police Department is seeking tips from the public about the identity of the person seen in surveillance photos from back in April of a burglary suspect. The man allegedly broke into and robbed a local bar/restaurant and was later seen using stolen credit cards at a nearby gas station.
Claiming they were wrongfully prosecuted over destroyed reality TV footage of a fatal police encounter, former Williamson County Sheriff Robert Chody and his former chief counsel, Jason Nassour, are suing district attorneys from Travis and Williamson counties in federal court for civil rights violations.
Travis County jurors in the case are set to receive about $27,000 in payments after hearing three days of evidence in what officials and experts say is a highly unusual decision.
The fees will be paid to 12 jurors and two alternates. (KVUE-TV)
Travis County is continuing to see a decline in accidental drug overdose deaths.
A 31-year-old man drowned over the weekend after trying to cross a pond near Rockdale on horseback, according to the Milam County Sheriff’s Office.
Several nightly lane closures are set to impact some Austin drivers this week along Interstate 35, including at the northbound 12th Street entrance ramp.
The public comment period on CapMetro‘s proposed 2027 & 2029 fare increases is open now.
The proposal includes the first fare increase since 2015, as well as updates to Reduced Fare programs that would simplify eligibility and maintain current participants.
A $500 million expansion is coming to Austin’s medical manufacturing sector. (Community Impact)
WEATHER
MONDAY’S HIGH / LOW TEMPERATURES
AUSTIN-BERGSTROM INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT
CAMP MABRY
5-DAY FORECAST / AUSTIN, TEXAS
Tropical Depression 2 strengthened into Tropical Storm Bertha on Monday evening. As the storm tracks westward, torrential rain, flooding, gusty thunderstorms and building seas are expected along the Gulf Coast this week.
As of early this morning, thunderstorms associated with Bertha remained spread over several hundred miles, with most of the activity over the Gulf.
Gov. Greg Abbott toured flood-ravaged areas of Kerr County by helicopter Monday, then told reporters roughly 490 homes and 100 businesses in the county had sustained damage from last week’s flooding, with 135 of those homes destroyed or heavily damaged.
Abbott said the rainfall that caused this year’s flooding was actually worse than the historic July 4, 2025 flood, but no lives were lost this time thanks to new warning systems including sirens and text alerts.
Evacuations continued in parts of Uvalde County as floodwaters slowly receded.
CHOPPER FLIGHT OVER FLOOD-RAVAGED GILLESPIE COUNTY – JULY 20, 2026
Several Austin firefighters were recently honored with Certificates of Commendation for their extraordinary service during the 2025 Hill Country flood response.
More than two weeks after Lorenzo Salgado Araujo was shot and killed by a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer during a traffic stop in Houston’s East End, the case continues to widen into a multi-agency investigation clouded by competing accounts.
The FBI is investigating a potential assault on law enforcement, while the DHS Office of Inspector General is separately investigating the shooting itself, and the Harris County District Attorney’s Office is conducting its own inquiry — though local prosecutors say they haven’t been invited to collaborate with federal agencies and may not have access to all the evidence being gathered.
Houston police, meanwhile, have opened a homicide investigation, and Gov. Greg Abbott has called for the Texas Rangers to conduct their own probe.
A U.S. official has since said the 52-year-old father of three was not actually the target of the operation — agents were headed to a different address when they spotted a white van with someone who resembled the person they were looking for. Video obtained by CNN shows unmarked SUVs trailing Salgado Araujo’s van before the shooting, contradicting ICE’s initial account that he rammed an officer’s vehicle. His family disputes DHS’s version of events, saying he would have fully complied had he known the unmarked vehicles belonged to ICE agents.
The case has also taken an unexpected turn: after the FBI obtained a search warrant to examine Salgado Araujo’s van, his family says a substance investigators described as suspicious “white crystal-like” packages was actually a homemade electrolyte drink mix. (WPBF-TV)
Austin immigration attorney, Thomas Esparza, talks about the fatal ICE shootings in Houston and Maine.
Attorneys say the federal agencies are using children as “bait” to detain sponsors, leaving kids waiting in shelters for months. (Texas Tribune)
A major shift is coming to smoke shops and hemp retailers across Texas on July 31, as state health regulators prepare to enforce strict new rules on hemp-derived cannabinoids.
Following a lengthy legal battle upheld by the Texas Supreme Court, the Texas Department of State Health Services (DSHS) will begin enforcing rules that prohibit the sale of popular alternative cannabinoids—including Delta-8, Delta-10, and THCP
The owner of one Austin hemp shop says his sales have declined as Texas nears new restrictions.
State Rep. James Talarico, D-Austin, has pledged to spend $25 million to mobilize Black voters on behalf of his campaign for the U.S. Senate this fall. Most polling shows Talarico in a statistical dead heat against his Republican opponent, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton. (Texas Public Radio)
Paxton is out on the trail, but it’s fairly limited compared to Talarico’s approach. He’s doing rallies, not a packed voter-contact schedule. His most recent rally was July 14 in McAllen. Paxton spoke for roughly eight minutes at his rally, and the crowd itself was modest, topping off at 100 attendees, though his campaign team claimed 700 people attended.
A 19-year-old soldier from Carrollton, Texas, was among those recently killed by direct Iranian fire. (Associated Press)
The war in Iran has recently escalated in dangerous new ways, drawing in Bahrain, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, as the Trump administration reeled from the Iranian killing of U.S. service members in Jordan.
(Episode from July 20, 2026)
After a week of devastating floods in the Hill Country, it’s now about clean-up and recovery. We’ll have the latest from Kerrville and more.
There are two dead and hundreds rescued after floodwaters rose to record levels for a second time in as many years last week. Concerns are now about the effects downstream. In Uvalde, the flooding is testing the resilience of a community.
Also, with midterms just a few months away, Gov. Greg Abbott appoints Robert Howden to oversee elections across Texas as the new secretary of state.
Concerns are rising about how a border wall will affect the dark skies of far West Texas.
(Episode from July 20, 2026)
A group fighting a proposed data center in Taylor (Willimason County) is taking the city council to court.
Gasoline prices in the U.S. rose above $4 per gallon on Monday for the first time in over a month as renewed fighting between the U.S. and Iran once again disrupted the flow of oil through the Strait of Hormuz and drove up crude prices once again. (Forbes)
SPORTS
MLB: It was a split night for Lone Star State baseball last night as the Houston Astros powered past the Miami Marlins 8–5 at Daikin Park behind a Jeremy Peña grand slam and a pair of home runs from Yordan Alvarez, while the Texas Rangers suffered a tough 10–3 setback at Globe Life Field as the Chicago White Sox broke the game open early.
Jeremy Peña hit a grand slam, Yordan Alvarez homered twice and the Houston Astros snapped a four-game losing streak with an 8-5 win over the Miami Marlins on Monday night. Peña hit his second career grand slam as part of a six-run second inning, which was capped by Alvarez’s first home run of the game. (Associated Press)
Andrew Benintendi hit a go-ahead three-run double that chased Texas starter Jacob deGrom in the fifth-inning and the Chicago White Sox beat the Rangers 10-3 on Monday night. (Associated Press)
Both teams stay put for rubber-match action tonight, July 21: the Rangers host the White Sox at 7:05 PM CDT in Arlington, while the Astros close out their series against the Marlins at 7:10 PM CDT in Houston.
MLS: Major League Soccer announced today that Austin FC’s regular season home match on Wednesday, July 22 vs. Seattle Sounders FC will kick off at 8:30 p.m. CT at Q2 Stadium. Kickoff was originally scheduled for 7:30 p.m. CT and was moved back due to forecasted high temperatures. Gates will now open at 7:00 p.m. CT.
NBA: San Antonio policed announced the arrests of five individuals accused of assaulting and robbing two New York Knicks fans during the NBA Finals on June 13.
COLLEGE FOOTBALL: The Texas Longhorns eye a national title run as Steve Sarkisian outlines four crucial offseason updates at the Texas High School Coaches Association Convention.
Can rising talents like Jermaine Bishop Jr. bring game-changing versatility to both sides of the ball, and will high-profile transfers such as Laurence Seymore elevate the offensive line?
Sark emphasizes the need for multifaceted running backs, while the Cole Hutson eligibility case looms large for depth and experience.
A breakdown the Longhorns’ new-look backfield. Plus, the latest from SEC Media Days, including Greg Sankey’s comments on CFP expansion, the Protect College Sports Act and the future of college football.
Extreme heat this week has Texans looking for fun ways to cool off.
Just to Austin’s southwest in Bexar County, is Schlitterbahn.
