MIAMI – Tropical Storm Josephine formed in the Atlantic Ocean on Thursday, making it the earliest “J-named” storm in a record-setting hurricane season.
Josephine was located 760 miles east-southeast of the northern Leeward Islands, according to the 11 p.m. advisory from the U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami. It was moving west-northwest with maximum sustained winds of 45 mph.
No coastal watches or warnings were in effect.
Josephine continues to move northwest this morning with winds down to 40 mph. It’s staying at tropical storm strength through the weekend before becoming a depression early next week as it curves north and into the Atlantic.
This storm does not pose a threat to South Florida. Josephine was named yesterday and became the earliest J-named storm on record, breaking the old record of August 22 which was set by Jose back in 2005. It is our 10th named storm of the season.
So far this year, Cristobal, Danielle, Edouard, Fay, Gonzalo, Hanna and Isaias have also set records for being the earliest named Atlantic storms of their respective place in the alphabet. Only Hanna and Isaias this year have developed into hurricanes.
Isaias killed two people in the Caribbean earlier this month. Several others across multiple U.S. states were then killed when the storm made landfall in North Carolina and moved through the East Coast, leading to floods, tornadoes, fires, and widespread power outages.
Last month, Hurricane Hanna slammed the Texas Gulf Coast with high winds and rains that flooded streets and knocked out power across the region.