After it became a tropical storm, Floyd accelerated to the north in the western Caribbean Sea. This was because a cold front was approaching. It steadily became more intense. The storm moved over extreme western Cuba early on October 12. Initially it was forecast to make landfall in the United States between Naples and Fort Myers, Florida. Suddenly, the storm moved sharply northeastward. It went into the southeastern Gulf of Mexico. The Hurricane Hunters gave reports which said Floyd got the status of a hurricane on October 12 for a short time. Around the same time, the nearby cold front created a low pressure area. This cut off the hurricane's inflow. While moving through the Florida Keys, Floyd became the only hurricane to affect the United States that year. However, its convection was decreasing very fast over the center due to the front. Soon after this, Floyd weakened to tropical storm status. The circulation became nearly impossible to track on satellite imagery. But surface observations showed it passed just south of Miami. The storm turned extratropical. It went to a process called extratropical transition, meaning it was changed from tropical storm to an extratropical one. This happened as it weakened over the Bahamas. Floyd was no longer a tropical cyclone by late on October 18. The circulation dissipated within the cold front early the next day.