Tropical Storm Fred to bring showers

Tropical Storm Fred is beginning to make its way up the East Coast, but Connecticut won’t see much of the effects from the storm, other than rain and light winds late Wednesday into Thursday evening.

“You’d call it an ideal rain-maker because it’s not going to be heavy enough to cause flooding,” Gary Lessor, chief meteorologist at Western Connecticut State University,

said. “The winds aren’t going to be there, so you’re not going to have any wind damage. You’re not going to have the coastal flooding, so it’s nearly ideal.”

What can Connecticut expect?

Fred, around 5 p.m. Tuesday, was passing through North Carolina with winds up to 25 mph, Lessor said.

“The thing is basically just falling apart,” Lessor said, regarding the storm’s strength.

By Thursday morning the storm should be coming through Pennsylvania before continuing onwards into Massachusetts by nighttime.

“We’ll see some showers around the area . ... Probably between a quarter and half of an inch because the circulations pretty much disintegrated,” Lessor said. “We’re not going to see any winds or power outages or anything like that.”

The storm is expected to stick around for about 24 hours, Lessor said, adding that peak gusts will reach around 20 mph.

What’s the weekend going to look like?

Clouds will linger in the area all weekend with temperatures in the mid to low 80s and high humidity.

“Say about 80 to 85 [degrees] Friday, then Saturday will be mixed sunshine with some clouds with the chance of a shower and thunderstorms,” Lessor said. “Sunday probably will have more clouds, again, with the chance of a couple showers or thunderstorms. But Friday and Saturday will be the warmer days in the mid 80s and Sunday the coolest at 80.”

Humidity is expected to stay around 70% through the next week.