Credit: Photo via NHC

Fred is expected to interact with the mountainous region of the Caribbean islands, which historically breaks up storms. So, Fred’s strength when it reaches Florida is still unclear. Credit: Photo via NHC

Last night, Tropical Storm Fred formed in the Caribbean and will likely impact Florida by this weekend.

According to the 11 a.m. update from the National Hurricane Center, the sixth named storm of the Atlantic hurricane season currently features maximum sustained winds of 45 mph and is moving west-northwest at 16 mph about 25 miles east-southeast of Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. 

While Fred’s path is still uncertain, the 5-day forecast cone covers South Florida with the center of the storm near the Florida Keys on Saturday. As of now, forecasters say the storm could make landfall or pass just off the coast of Tampa Bay on Sunday morning as a tropical storm.

Fred is expected to interact with the mountainous region of the Caribbean islands, which historically breaks up storms. So, Fred’s strength when it reaches Florida is still unclear. 

For now, a Tropical Storm Warning remains in place for Dominican Republic, as well as the south coast from Punta Palenque eastward and on the north coast from the Dominican Republic/Haiti border eastward.

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This article appears in Aug 5-11, 2021.

Colin Wolf has been working with weekly newspapers since 2007 and has been the Digital Editor for Creative Loafing Tampa since 2019. He is also the Director of Digital Content Strategy for CL's parent...