Fred Loses Closed Center of Circulation... Still Forecast to Regain Tropical Storm Strength

COLUMBUS, Ga. (WTVM) - Fred has been interacting with land for the past few days, and that has caused it to lose its strength and organization. Saturday morning, Fred lost its closed center of circulation therefore losing its status of “Tropical Depression”. Winds are still sustained at 35 mph.

Over the day, Fred will begin to move away from Cuba and over the warm water of the Gulf of Mexico. Once it gets out over open water we will likely see re-strengthening back to tropical storm status. Conditions are favorable to see this re-strengthening to Tropical Storm status by tomorrow evening.

Fred has lots of ground to make up ahead of landfall, and that will act in our favor. We are forecasting Fred to make landfall along the Gulf Coast anywhere from Mississippi to the Western Florida Panhandle on Monday night into Tuesday morning as a Tropical Storm.

After landfall, Fred will quickly weaken as it moves northward. As of now, we are still forecast to be on the eastern side of Fred where we could see impacts to include heavy rainfall, intervals of gusty winds, and the low-end threat of isolated, brief spin-up tornadoes. Any shifts east or west of the current track could bring about a change to our impacts, so stay tuned as we get more information in.

Without a closed center of circulation, models are having a hard time getting a grasp on Fred. There are two areas of circulation within this system that have formed, and depending on which one wins out over the other we could see a wobble east or west with Fred’s track.

As always, stay with us as we get new data in and fine-tune this forecast. You can find updates on air, online, and on our WTVM Weather App.

Download our FREE WTVM Weather App Here: http://onelink.to/stormteam9