Tropical Storm Bertha is the second storm of the 2020 hurricane season. (National Hurricane Center)

HOLT, Fla., May 27, 2020—Tropical Storm Bertha formed this morning near the coast of South Carolina.

This is the second named storm prior to the start of the 2020 Atlantic hurricane season.

The area of disturbed weather the National Hurricane Center was tracking during the past day or so quickly became better organized this morning, just offshore of the South Carolina coast and made landfall east of Charleston, S.C., with 50 mph winds.

Weather data indicated the system was producing tropical-storm-force winds, initiating the upgrade of the system to a named storm.

Bertha is expected to produce heavy rainfall across portions of eastern and central South Carolina, west-central to far southeastern North Carolina and southwest Virginia.

National Hurricane Center forecast