It was located between an area of high pressure to its southeast and another one to the northwest, the depression moved slowly towards the northeast. It became a weak tropical storm during the early afternoon of July 19. In the beginning, the storm was not strong, with few strong thunderstorms. Dry air in the middle- to-upper-levels of the atmosphere caused the storm to not strengthen. However, late on July 20 thunderstorms became more active. Cristobal stayed as a weak tropical storm during the time that it moved close to the South Carolina and North Carolina coast, and the storm never moved onto land. It reached its highest intensity as a strong tropical storm on July 21 while it passed east of Cape Hatteras, and stayed the same over the warm Gulf Stream. The storm started to enter cooler waters, and the cyclone quickly moved towards the east-northeastward on July 21 and July 22. In the afternoon of July 22, Cristobal began to weaken while to the south of Nova Scotia. The storm's cloud pattern became weak, and on July 23, it became an extratropical cyclone, and was no longer a tropical storm. The National Hurricane Center issued its last advisory on the system at 5:00 am EDT (0900 UTC) on July 23.