It's the second named storm of the year, and already it's set a record. As Jeff Masters of the Wunderground weather site puts it, Bertha, at 25 degress west longitude, "is the farthest east a tropical storm has ever formed in the Atlantic so early in the season. It is also the farthest east a tropical storm has formed in the month of July." Take a look at his post HERE, and as you'll note in the GOES-12 satellite image, it's unusually close to the coast of Africa, heading westward.

There's been considerable research in recent years, showing that tropical storms and hurricanes really have their roots, not out in the Atlantic, but all the way over in the mountains of northeastern Africa -- near the Red Sea. Moisture from there, tumbling over the mountains and then picking up heat as it heads westward over the Sahara -- that's the genesis of many storms.

The good news is that this one is small, and far, and may not come at all close to the U.S. Take a look HERE at the forecast path from the National Hurricane Center; the five-day track shows Bertha, if it remains a storm, turning north in the mid-Atlantic. (The hurricane center forecasters warn us not to use the five-day track to make plans, but they're still pretty good at what they do.)