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

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.

BREAKING: Tropical Storm #Josephine has formed in the Atlantic, becoming the earliest "J" storm in history.

We're LIVE now with everything you need to know. pic.twitter.com/Hw8RYB03OF

— The Weather Channel (@weatherchannel) August 13, 2020

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.

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.