After becoming a tropical cyclone, the depression had many cloud swirls inside its common center. Banding features increased in satellite pictures, though southwesterly wind shear from an upper-level trough to its northeast and the lack of an organized circulation originally prevented strengthening. Dry air encountered the depression, and as such the depression developed very slowly; forecasters maintained considerable difficulty in determining a center of circulation. It continued its motion to the west-northwest while tracking around the southern periphery of a deep-layer subtropical ridge to its north. Though convection remained focused near the outer periphery of the system, the overall organized continued to steadily increase, and it is estimated the depression strengthened into Tropical Storm Florence on September 5 while located about 1120 miles (1800 km) east-northeast of Anguilla.