Watching Tropical Storm Fred

COLUMBUS, Ga. (WTVM) - All eyes are on the Dominican Republic and Haiti as Tropical Storm Fred impacts them today. As of 11 AM ET Wednesday morning, Fred is a Tropical Storm with maximum sustained winds of 45 mph. As it interacts with the mountainous terrain of Haiti today, we will likely see Fred weaken to a Tropical Depression before re-emerging over water and moving along the northern coast of Cuba over the next couple of days.

Beyond interaction with Cuba there is still much uncertainty on the exact track that Fred will take. It has a few hurdles to get through over the coming days as it moves through unfavorable conditions for tropical storm strengthening. Once it moves over the warm water of the Gulf of Mexico we may see additional strengthening at Tropical Storm status. As of now, Fred is not expected to strengthen to a hurricane, but we cannot rule that out. The latest forecast track from the National Hurricane Center has Fred nearing the Florida Panhandle as a Tropical Storm on Monday morning. However, there is low confidence on the exact track past Friday since we are still many days away from any potential impacts.

If we end up on the right side of Fred’s center of circulation, we will have to keep an eye out for the potential for heavy rainfall, windy conditions, and a few brief quick spin-up “tropical” tornadoes. If we end up on the left side of Fred’s center of circulation, we will likely just see heavy rain and some breezy conditions. But as always, this forecast can and likely will change over the coming days, and we will continue to fine-tune the exact forecast for us locally as time moves on. We will have a much better handle on exact timing, track, and impacts in the coming days.

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