Hurricane Fred (2015)

Hurricane Fred

Category 1 hurricane (SSHWS/NWS)
Hurricane Fred over the Cape Verde Islands on August 31
Formed	August 30, 2015
Dissipated	September 6, 2015
Highest winds	1-minute sustained: 85 mph (140 km/h)
Lowest pressure	986 mbar (hPa); 29.12 inHg
Fatalities	9 direct
Damage	> $1.1 million (2015 USD)
Areas affected	West Africa, Cape Verde
Part of the 2015 Atlantic hurricane season

Hurricane Fred was the first hurricane to move through the Cape Verde Islands since 1892. The second hurricane and sixth named storm of the 2015 Atlantic hurricane season, Fred originated from a well-defined tropical wave over West Africa in late August. Once offshore, the wave moved northwestward within a favorable tropospheric environment and strengthened into a tropical storm on August 30. The next day, Fred further grew to a Category 1 hurricane with peak winds of 85 mph (140 km/h) as it approached Cape Verde. After passing Boa Vista and moving away from Santo Antão, it entered a phase of steady weakening, dropping below hurricane status by September 1. Fred then turned to the west-northwest and endured increasingly hostile wind shear, but maintained its status as a tropical cyclone despite repeated forecasts of dissipation. It fluctuated between a minimal tropical storm and tropical depression through September 4–5 before curving sharply to the north. By September 6, Fred's circulation pattern had diminished considerably, and it dissipated later that day.

At the threat of the hurricane, all of Cape Verde was placed under a hurricane warning for the first time in history. Gale-force winds battered much of the Barlavento region through August 31, downing numerous trees and utility poles. On the easternmost islands of Boa Vista and Sal, Fred leveled roofs and left several villages without power and phone services for several days. About 70 percent of the houses in Povoação Velha were damaged to some degree. Throughout the northern islands, rainstorms damaged homes and roads, and São Nicolau lost large amounts of its crop and livestock. Monetary losses exceeded $1.1 million (2015 USD) across Cape Verde, though the rain's overall impact on the agriculture was positive. Swells from the hurricane produced violent seas along West African shores, destroying fishing villages and submerging large swaths of residential area in Senegal. Between the coasts of West Africa and Cape Verde, maritime incidents related to Fred resulted in nine deaths.