A tropical wave moved off the coast of Africa late on August 27th. By midday on the 28th, convection blossomed south of the Cape Verde Islands. By the 29th, the system had developed into a tropical depression.As it moved west at 21 mph, it slowly strengthened, becoming a tropical storm southwest of the Cape Verde Islands by midday the 30th and a hurricane early on the morning of the 1st while 1000 miles east of the Lesser Antilles. Outflow from Hurricane David, which was tracking ahead of Frederic, weakened Frederic back into a tropical storm that evening and a tropical depression during the afternoon of the 6th.The cyclone passed over the Greater Antilles, bringing heavy rains to southern Puerto Rico and St. Croix.The rainfall graphic below uses data supplied by the National Climatic Data Center in Asheville, NC.

As David weakened over the northeast, Frederic moved through southern Cuba and slowly strengthened beginning on the 7th as David’s influence aloft weakened.The cyclone regained tropical storm intensity on the evening of the 8th and hurricane strength by the morning of the 10th while near the west end of Cuba. The hurricane moved steadily to the northwest, with the eye crossing Dauphin Island, Alabama late on the 13th and making final landfall near the Alabama/Mississippi border an hour later. As it moved through the Southeast, Frederic set a new low pressure report for Meridian, Mississippi of 977 hPa/ 28.85.”Below is a storm total rainfall map for Frederic, using data provided by the National Climatic Data Center.

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