A trio of tropical storms brought heavy rain and wind to the Southeast and the Caribbean on Tuesday.
Fred made landfall Monday afternoon near Cape San Blas, Florida, as a 65 mph tropical storm. Fred was the fourth storm to have made landfall this year, all of which were tropical storms.
Heavy rain was falling Tuesday morning across parts of the Southeast, and a tornado watch was issued.
While still holding on to tropical depression status, it was forecast to weaken through Tuesday as it moved through the Southeast and into the Mid-Atlantic. The greatest risk associated with Fred will be heavy rain and flash flooding.
About 14 million people were under flood alerts Tuesday from northern Georgia up through southwest Virginia. About 2 to 4 inches of rain, locally up to 10 inches, could fall, especially across parts of the southern Appalachians, where there is a high risk of flash flooding.
In addition to the flood threat, Fred could also produce some severe storms capable of quickly spinning up tornadoes. The threat Tuesday is for parts of Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina and southern Virginia.
Wednesday, the isolated tornado threat will shift into parts of the Mid-Atlantic and the interior Northeast, including Washington, Baltimore and Philadelphia.
As forecasters were tracking Fred, eyes were also watching Tropical Storm Grace in the Caribbean.
At midmorning Tuesday, Grace, with winds of 50 mph, was moving away from Haiti after it dumped torrential rain over the areas hit hard by Saturday's 7.2 magnitude earthquake.
On the forecast track, the center of Grace will be near the northern coast of Jamaica on Tuesday afternoon and near the Cayman Islands on Tuesday night, and it will approach the Yucatán Peninsula of Mexico late Wednesday or early Thursday.
Gradual strengthening is forecast during the next couple of days, when Grace could be near hurricane strength as it approaches Mexico. Beyond that, Grace is expected to maintain at tropical storm strength as it makes landfall on Mexico on Saturday.
On top of Fred and Grace, Henri was also named late Monday, making it the eighth named storm of the season.
Only two other years (in the satellite era), 2020 and 2005, had eight named storms this early in the season. The average date of the eighth named storm is Sept. 9.
Henri is expected to remain a tropical storm as it pinwheels around Bermuda in the coming days, bringing unsettled weather to the island.
