Tropical storm Gonzalo sets a record as it moves into the Caribbean

The storm occurred about 1,250 miles east of the South Windward Islands on Wednesday morning, with winds of 45 mph and moving west-northwest at 12 mph.

“Given the greater organization of the system and its small size, Gonzalo’s (pronounced gohn-SAH-loh) probability of becoming a hurricane increases. Small storms are prone to more significant intensity fluctuations, both from top to bottom,” the CNN meteorologist Taylor Ward said.
The strengthening will continue the next day as the storm is expected to become the first hurricane of the season by Thursday, the NHC said.

The NHC forecasts that the storm will weaken slightly before passing through the Windward Islands. The storm may even fade after it moves over the islands, as many models indicate, or it could continue to intensify until next week. It is still too early to say exactly what he will do after he moves to the Caribbean.

This is the first time that a storm has been given a name beginning with the letter “G” since the United States began using a named storm system in 1953. On average, the seventh named storm in a season is September.

The previous record for the 7th named storm formation in the Atlantic was Gert on July 24 during the busiest 2005 hurricane season on record.

“While 2020 could beat 2005 down to the seventh named storm, 2005 had already had 3 hurricanes and 2 (of them were) major hurricanes (Dennis and Emily) prior to July 21. 2020 has not yet had a named storm to reach the strength of the hurricane, “Philip Klotzbach, a research scientist at Colorado State University, tweeted.

“The tropical Atlantic seems extremely conducive to an active season,” Klotzbach told CNN.

So far in July, he said, the ingredients necessary for an active season remain in place.

“So even though we haven’t seen hurricanes yet, I think we’ll see soon.”

The active part of the hurricane season is still a few weeks away and it seems likely that we will have the busy season that experts have been predicting.