So far this season, Cristobal and every storm from Edouard through Rene all became the earliest storm to develop in the basin for their respective letters. That trend of early formation records is expected to continue with disturbances lining up off Africa and in the waters near the United States over the next week.
The current early-season record holders for the letters S through W were all set in October 2005, but many or all of these may be replaced by the end of September.
The historically active Atlantic hurricane season is about to kick into overdrive. As many as three to five named tropical systems could be churning through the Atlantic at the same time by the middle of September, forecasters warned, and more records could be on the line.
With the potential for one to three systems to become tropical depressions or greater in the next week, there could be up to five tropical cyclones spinning simultaneously in the Atlantic, an unusual occurrence that has not occurred since Sept. 10-12, 1971.
