Entering the Eastern Caribbean Sea after a close pass to Dominica by the next day, the potential tropical cyclone continued northwestward.

By August 11, the disturbance had formed into Tropical Storm Fred just south of Puerto Rico, shortly before hitting the Dominican Republic on the island of Hispaniola later that day.

The storm proceeded to weaken to a tropical depression over the highly mountainous island, before emerging north of the Windward Passage on August 12.

After having its circulation continuously disrupted by land interaction and wind shear, the storm degenerated into a tropical wave as it was turning northward near the western tip of Cuba the following day.

Fred continued towards the Florida Panhandle and swiftly intensified to a strong 65 mph (105 km/h) tropical storm before making landfall late on August 16 and moving into the state of Georgia.

[1] On August 4 at 12:00 UTC, the National Hurricane Center (NHC) noted a tropical wave which had formed in the central Atlantic.

[6] Passing south of the Virgin Islands, radar imagery continued to affirm that the disturbance had not yet formed into a tropical cyclone with multiple areas of rotation being evident and not resembling a well-defined circulation.

[7] However, following yet another hurricane hunter reconnaissance flight into the disturbance, data confirmed it was defined enough to be designated Tropical Storm Fred 45 miles (72 km) south of Ponce, Puerto Rico on August 11 at 03:00 UTC.

[8] Fred's circulation continued to become better defined as reconnaissance aircraft data further confirmed the storm had intensified slightly with winds at 45 mph (72 km/h).

[10] After emerging back over the waters north of the Windward Passage at 09:00 UTC, Fred had lost a majority of its thunderstorm activity over the center which itself had become broad and ill-defined, further exacerbated by 20 knots of westerly wind shear inflicted by an upper-level trough near Florida.

[14] The remnants of Fred turned northward into the Gulf of Mexico and began to re-organize, attaining gale-force winds and an organized band of thunderstorms to the east of its trough axis.

[15] Furthermore, hurricane hunter reconnaissance data confirmed that the remnants had developed an organized circulation and that Fred had regenerated into a tropical storm at 12:40 UTC on August 15.

[16] A lopsided tropical cyclone, most of the strongest winds were displaced to the east of the partially exposed center as the storm increased in strength once more.

[17] Fred continued intensifying in a marginally favorable environment with 30 °C (86 °F) sea surface temperatures and a relatively moist atmosphere, with bursts of convection forming into a small central dense overcast over the center which was slightly more east than depicted as confirmed by reconnaissance aircraft.

[27][28] Governor Pedro Pierluisi noted that some gas stations shut down as large amounts of people came to fuel prior to the storm.

[30] More than 47 communities were cut off and 4,025 people were displaced by flash flooding caused by the storm, while 805 homes in total were damaged across the country; at least 5 were entirely destroyed.

[33] In Haiti, the Civil Protection Unit issued a yellow level of vigilance (risk of impact at low to moderate intensity) as Fred crossed into the country.

[45][46] Fred brought storm surge flooding across St. George Island, Cape San Blas, and Port St. Joe, while the road to Indian Pass was blocked after being covered with over 5 feet of water.

[54] Around 39,200 users of Duke Energy in the Carolinas lost electricity as trees across the state were knocked down while Fred moved north.

[62] North Carolina Emergency Management deployed water rescue teams, while National Guard and Highway Patrol helicopters began searches around the same time.

[64] In Cruso, North Carolina, 6 people died due to severe flooding in the region, the final missing individual's body being recovered on August 27.

[80] Heavy rain in Steuben County, New York triggered a flash flood emergency to be issued, requiring over 100 people to be rescued.