Tropical storm Gonzalo is the earliest 'G' storm on record — and it's about to become a hurricane

A record-breaking storm is set to skim the top of South America in the next few days.

Tropical storm Gonzalo is gaining strength in the Atlantic Ocean as it moves toward the Caribbean, and is expected to become a hurricane by Thursday. Gonzalo's name indicates it's the seventh storm of the 2020 season, and it's the earliest the National Hurricane Center has reached a "G" name in its recorded history.

Gonzalo isn't expected to be much of a threat to the islands in the Caribbean, many of which faced devastation in 2017's Hurricane Maria. After it becomes a hurricane, Gonzalo will likely calm back down to a tropical storm, the NHC predicts.

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Still, it's an incredibly early arrival for a G-named storm. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration says the average date of formation of the seventh storm in a season is usually Sept. 16 — hurricane season doesn't usually begin until late summer. The previous record was held by Tropical Storm Gert, which formed July 24, 2005. Hurricane Katrina formed and brought devastation to New Orleans a month later. Still, in 2005 there were already three hurricanes, two of them major, by July 21, tweeted meteorologist Philip Klotzbach of Colorado State University.