On Monday afternoon, the easterly wave I referenced on Friday (was inland over western Africa then) was upgraded to Tropical Depression 7, and was further upgraded to Tropical Storm Fred just 6 hours later. Since then, Fred has continued to get better organized and the latest intensity is 60kts and 990mb. It is located about 350 miles southwest of the Cape Verde islands and tracking west at 12kts.
The satellite presentation is very impressive... there is healthy symmetric outflow, persistent cold cloud tops over the center, and microwave imagery reveals an eye and eyewall. Fred is forecast to become the second hurricane of the season in the near future, and start heading NW into the open central Atlantic. In the longer term, the same trough that will be responsible for steering Fred NW will also introduce a much less favorable environment and the storm should weaken notably by the end of the weekend.
Please visit my tropical Atlantic headquarters.
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