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At 200 PM CVT (1500 UTC), the center of Tropical Storm Victor was located near latitude 9.5 North, longitude 28.9 West. Victor is moving toward the west northwest near 14 mph (22 km/h). A west northwest to northwest motion over the eastern tropical Atlantic is expected through the weekend. Maximum sustained winds remain near 45 mph (75 km/h) with higher gusts. Gradual strengthening is forecast, and Victor could be near hurricane strength on Friday. A weakening trend is expected to begin over the weekend. Tropical storm force winds extend outward up to 105 miles (165 km) north of the center. The estimated minimum central pressure is 1004 mb (29.65 inches).

Victor remains a sprawling tropical storm with numerous curved bands surrounding the center. The associated convection remains most organized on the storm's west side. The latest Dvorak estimates are largely unchanged and range from 35 to 45 kt. In addition, an ASCAT-B pass from around 12Z showed maximum winds in the 35-40 kt range. Based on all of this data, the initial intensity is held at 40 kt. The ASCAT data also showed that the wind field is quite broad with tropical-storm-force winds extending about 90 n mi north of the center.

Victor is still moving west-northwestward, or 290 degrees, at 12 kt. The storm is forecast to continue on that same general track for another day or so as it remains on the south side of a deep-layer ridge over the subtropical eastern Atlantic. By late Friday, a mid- to upper-level low is expected to form over the central Atlantic, and that feature should erode the western portion of the ridge. As a result, Victor is expected to turn northwestward by the weekend and then northward early next week when it is forecast to move in the flow between the ridge and the low. The model tracks have converged compared to yesterday, but the ECMWF remains the slowest and westernmost solution and the HWRF is still the easternmost model. The NHC track forecast is nudged to the west of the previous one and lies close to the various consensus aids and is in fair agreement with the GFS.

The storm has about another 36 hours in conducive environmental conditions of very low wind shear, a moist mid-level airmass, and warm 28-29 degree C SSTs. Therefore, intensification seems likely during that time period, but given the broad nature of the system's wind field, Victor will likely gain strength slowly during that time period. However, in a couple of days, the models show a significant increase in southwesterly shear and a progressively drier airmass. These negative factors for the storm along with slightly cooler SSTs should cause Victor to lose strength. In fact, some of the models suggest that Victor could dissipate by the end of the forecast period. The new NHC intensity forecast is a little lower than the previous one. It should be noted that although this forecast no longer explicitly shows Victor becoming a hurricane, it could occur in a day or two before conditions become hostile. This forecast lies near the high end of the model guidance.