 After landfall the storm rapidly weakened, and about eight hours after moving ashore, Ernesto deteriorated to tropical depression status.Interacting with a pre-existing frontal zone that extended eastward through Virginia, Ernesto quickly lost its tropical characteristics, and late on September 1 it transitioned into an extratropical cyclone.It re-intensified to a gale over the Mid-Atlantic states, only to weaken to an extratropical depression near Pennsylvania.