at the time of designation, because of an upper-level low that was situated over the cyclone's surface center. When Barry became a tropical cyclone, its convection wrapped around roughly half of the center. Outflow in the eastern semicircle was good, although due to upper-level wind shear, it was restricted to southeast of the circulation. The cyclone became embedded within a mid- to-upper-level trough between the ridge over the central U.S. and the ridge over the northwestern Caribbean. A strong, upper-level cyclonic shear axis extended from just south of Cape Hatteras to near Brownsville, Texas, which prevented Barry from accelerating in forward speed. The ridge over the United States weakened, thus collapsing the steering pattern; this resulted in a west-southwestward drifting motion of the tropical storm by around August 3. Early on August 3, strong westerly winds prevailed, and separated the center of circulation from what limited convection remained. The storm quickly regained some convection, although maximum sustained winds remained weak, at about 40 mph (60 km/h). Despite a slight drop in barometric pressure, post-season analysis revealed Barry weakened into a tropical depression early on August 4 due to the persistent wind shear and falling external pressure. At 1800 UTC on August 4, the cyclone re-intensified slightly, and was upgraded to a tropical storm as the shear decreased. Early on August 5, a strengthening period began as deep convection ignited over and near the low-level center. Prior to landfall, banding features developed on the eastern half of the circulation, despite some residual westerly shear. Within seven hours, the barometric pressure dropped from 1004 mb to 990 mb and overall satellite presentation had begun to improve. Barry reached its peak intensity at 1800 UTC on August 5 with winds of , just shy of hurricane status. An eye formed at around the same time. At 0500 UTC on August 6, Barry increased in forward speed and made landfall at Santa Rosa Beach, Florida with winds of . Moving inland, the system weakened rapidly to a tropical depression; the National Hurricane Center issued its last advisory on the storm early on August 6. By the evening hours, maximum sustained winds near the center were around to , as the system slowed significantly and drifted northwest at about . The depression turned northwestward, and steadily weakened to a remnant low near Memphis, Tennessee on August 7, and the remnant low dissipated on August 8,