The 2004 Atlantic Hurricane season started off slow but then became very active in August, September, October, and even November. The season produced 15 named storms, 9 hurricanes, and 6 major hurricanes. 2004 is now infamous for 4 powerful hurricanes striking the US state of Florida within a 7 week time period. Frances was the second of 4 hurricanes to do just that. Frances impacted the United States and the Bahamas.

Around August 22nd a vigorous tropical wave (tropical low) moved off the coast of Africa. Models started to show this low becoming a hurricane potentially a significant one. Already the wave had winds up to 30 mph but it did not have a closed circulation. On August 23rd the tropical wave started to produce more convection and satellite estimated winds to be 35 mph, but there was still no surface closed circulation. On August 24th the tropical wave became a depression in the far Atlantic. On August 25th winds increased to 40 mph and the depression was named Tropical Storm Frances.

Later on the 25th Frances started to show signs of rapid deepening as the pressure started to drop and the winds increased to 65 mph. On August 26th an eye appeared on weather satellites and winds where estimated to have increased to 75 mph. Thus, Frances was upgraded to Hurricane Frances. ON August 27th Frances became a category 2 hurricane with winds up to 100 mph. Later that night Frances became a major hurricane with winds up to 115 mph.

On August 28th Frances became a category 4 hurricane with winds up to 130 mph in the open waters of the Atlantic. On the 29th Frances underwent an eye wall replacement cycle and went from a 135 mph category 4 hurricane to a 115 mph category 3 hurricane. The weakening was short lived as August 30th Frances was stronger with winds now 145 mph. Around this time computer models started to steer Frances into Florida. Over the next several days Frances fluctuated between category 3 and 4 status due to eye wall replacement cycles. On September the 1st Frances once again became a 145 mph category 4 hurricane with its lowest pressure reading of 935 millibars.

On September the 3rd Frances started to weaken as dry air from a cold front off the East coast started to interact with the system. However, Frances still made landfall in the Bahamas as a 120 mph category 3 major hurricane. In the meantime France's movement slowed down. Due to the dry air, and upwelling France's winds decreased to 110 mph. But the hurricane expanded in size which meant its wind field was much larger. Due to going over the Gulf Stream no more weakening occurred. Late on September 4th Frances made landfall in Palm Beach Florida as a 110 mph high end category 2 hurricane.

Frances produced a dangerous storm surge and damaging winds as it move up into Florida. Once inland Frances produced 100 mph winds. Tropical storm force winds even reached the upstate part of South Carolina. However, Frances was not done. As Frances and later its remnants moved up into Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia and eventually Maryland more problems arose. Frances caused devastating flooding with some locations getting over 9 inches of rain.

Frances also produced a lot of tornadoes in Florida, Georgia, The Carolinas, Virginia, and Maryland. A total of 103 tornadoes where spawned by Frances. Some of these tornadoes where EF2 and EF3 tornadoes. The tornadoes alone killed 10 people and caused hundreds of millions of dollars worth of damage.

In the Bahamas Frances caused 2 deaths and $900 million dollars worth of damage. In Florida Frances killed 35 people, and caused $ 8.6 Billion dollars wroth of damage. Elsewhere in the United States the floods, and tornadoes caused 13 deaths and $500 million in damages. Overall Frances caused 50 deaths and $10 Billion in damages with $9.1 Billion and 48 deaths occurring in the United States Alone.

Due to the destruction in the Bahamas, and the United States, especially the United States of Florida. The name Frances was retired the following year. In fact, Frances was 2nd of 4 names to be retired following the 2004 season. Frances was the 2nd destructive hurricane to strike the US state of Florida and the 2nd of 5 hurricanes to make landfall in the United States of the year 2004. After Charley and Frances things could not get any worse for the state of Florida, but that was about to change soon very soon. As two more destructive hurricanes would pound the state.