Per the 11 p.m. update Wednesday, Fred is still a Tropical Depression with 35 mph max sustained winds, moving to the west-northwest at 15 mph. It is set to move over portions of Hispañola later today. Southwest Florida remains in the forecast cone for Fred. It is very likely the Caribbean terrain will hinder the storms development and debilitate it as it moves over Hispañola. There are many obstacles for this storm in the next days it will have to go through, but there is still a chance for restrengthening as it moves back over water after exiting Cuba From there, the current forecast from the National Hurricane Center has Fred moving just north of Cuba Thursday before moving into the Florida Straits late Friday, then making a turn to the north, where it is set to remain just offshore of Southwest Florida as it continues its track northward towards the Panhandle. The current track has this system making landfall near Panama City Sunday night into early Monday morning. Right now, as we’ve seen in the past with systems like Elsa just about a month ago, the forecast is sensitive to some obstacles in Fred’s way: one of the biggest obstacles being how the land interaction of Hispañola and then Cuba will impact the storm. Additional obstacles include dry air and even some wind shear. Before we nail down those finer details, it is too soon to determine specifics of how much rain, how strong of winds, and if we will see any storm surge here in Southwest Florida. Right now, we can at least bet on an increased chance of rain for the weekend. The best thing to do is continue to monitor the situation and stay tuned for more updates coming out daily on WINK News! Besides Fred, out in the open eastern Atlantic, we are keeping an eye a tropical wave moving westward with a 60% chance of development.