MIAMI -- Heavy rain drenched southeast Louisiana on Monday as Bertha, the Atlantic hurricane season's second tropical storm, weakened to a tropical depression and moved ashore, forecasters at the National Hurricane Center said.

Born as a tropical storm on Sunday, Bertha moved across the U.S. gulf of Mexico coast near New Orleans, with maximum sustained winds of 35mph (56kph). It was expected to drop 3-5 Inches (8-13cm) of rain on the Louisiana and Mississippi coasts.

The Alabama and Florida panhandle coast also were getting heavy rain, Reuters reported.

Tropical depressions become tropical storms and are given names when maximum winds reach 39mph (63kph).

The first tropical storm of the Atlantic season, Arthur, formed in the North Atlantic Ocean on July 15 and fizzled without hitting land.