Tropical Storm Josephine forms in the Atlantic, isn't expected to impact land

By Elizabeth Gardner, WRAL meteorologist; Max Claypool and Jusdon Jones, CNN meteorologists

Tropical Storm Josephine formed in the Atlantic on Thursday morning. This system is the earliest forming “J-storm” on record. The previous record held by a J-storm was one that formed on August 22 in 2005.

This continues the record-setting pace of this hurricane season — which has broken all the records from the 2005 hurricane season. That year we saw 28 named storms and 15 of them were hurricanes.

The tropical storm isn’t expected to affect land. It doesn’t appear it is going to strengthen enough to cause any damage.

It is likely to strengthen in the first part of this weekend, but diminish and go back to a tropical depression later into the weekend.

The 2020 Atlantic hurricane season runs from June 1 to Nov. 30. The areas covered include the Atlantic Ocean, Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea.