Hurricane season gets its 10th named storm months earlier than average

Cars and a house are shown damaged by a fallen tree after Tropical Storm Isaias and its treacherous winds and heavy rain passed through on August 4, 2020 in Bogota, New Jersey.
(Image credit: Munoz Alvarez/Getty Images)

Yet another tropical storm has formed in the Atlantic amid 2020's unusually busy hurricane season.

The National Hurricane Center on Thursday gave the name Josephine to a tropical storm that has formed in the Atlantic with winds of 45 miles per hour, CNN reports. This makes Josephine the 10th named storm of the Atlantic hurricane season and the earliest storm with a J name ever, coming earlier than Jose, a tropical storm that formed on Aug. 22, 2005.

The good news, though, is that Josephine, which is over 1,000 miles east of the Leeward Islands, is expected to weaken and "it does not appear" it "will pose a threat to the mainland United States," according to The Weather Channel. Still, Josephine's formation was notable given that as USA Today reports, during an average hurricane season, it takes until Oct. 19 for the 10th named storm to form.

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But the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration recently forecast that 2020's Atlantic hurricane season could be one of the busiest ever recorded, with as many as 25 named storms when there are an average of only 12 in an entire season. Of those 25 storms, the NOAA projected that between seven and 11 of them will become hurricanes.

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Brendan Morrow

Brendan worked as a culture writer at The Week from 2018 to 2023, covering the entertainment industry, including film reviews, television recaps, awards season, the box office, major movie franchises and Hollywood gossip. He has written about film and television for outlets including Bloody Disgusting, Showbiz Cheat Sheet, Heavy and The Celebrity Cafe.