Storm could be season’s first hurricane
Tropical Storm Gonzalo developed Wednesday in the the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, setting another record for the basin and shaping up to become a hurricane — the season’s first — by today, according to the National Hurricane Center.
On Wednesday, Gonzalo was centered about 1,250 miles east of the southern Windward Islands, with maximum sustained winds of 45 mph, moving westnorthwest at 12 mph.
The storm is on a path that could eventually take it into the lower Caribbean Sea by this weekend, according to AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Rob Miller.
“There is a chance Gonzalo ramps up to a Category 1 hurricane prior to reaching the Windward Islands,” Miller said.
Gonzalo is expected to move near or over the islands this weekend and could bring direct impacts from winds and heavy rainfall, according to the National Hurricane Center.
“We are forecasting it will become a hurricane, the season’s first,” said Dennis Feltgen, a meteorologist and spokesman for the center.
While it is too soon to determine the magnitude and timing of those impacts, the center advised people on the islands to monitor the storm’s progress.
“It’s too soon to predict the exact timing of when the impacts of wind and water would arrive and the severity,” Feltgen said.
“It’s a small storm, but small storms tend to strengthen quickly and weaken quickly,” he added. “Folks there need to be paying attention because that could be on their doorstep this weekend.”
The storm strengthened enough to be given the name Gonzalo shortly before 9 a.m. Wednesday, when maximum sustained winds increased to 45 mph.
Gonzalo is the earliest ever “G”-named storm since the satellite era of the 1960s, beating out Tropical Storm Gert, which formed on July 24 amid the intense 2005 hurricane season, according to AccuWeather.
So far this year, Cristobal, Danielle, Edouard and Fay also set records for being the earliest named storms of their respective place in the alphabet.
Many storms this year have beat out ones from the notorious 2005 season — known as the most active on record — for the title of earliest to form in the basin, according to AccuWeather, but the 2020 season pales in comparison in terms of overall intensity.
By this point in 2005, the Atlantic basin had already spawned three hurricanes and two major hurricanes — Category 3 or higher — according to Philip Klotzbach, a tropical meteorologist at Colorado State University.