(Bloomberg) -- Tropical Storm Paulette set a record for the earliest 16th storm of the season in the Atlantic as it churns across the ocean between the Caribbean and African Coast. It's not expected to threaten the U.S.
Paulette, with winds of 40 miles (64 kilometers) per hour, was about 1,375 miles east of the Caribbean Leeward Islands when it formed, the National Hurricane Center said in an advisory at 11 a.m. in New York.
“Modest strengthening is likely for the next couple of days,” David Zelinsky, a forecaster at the center wrote. Paulette marked the earliest the Atlantic hurricane season has arrived at 16 named storms by a margin of 10 days, he said.
The 2020 season is in the midst of its most active phase, which usually peaks about Sept. 10. So far, seven of the 16 storms this year have struck the U.S., including Hurricane Laura. Laura killed more than a dozen people across the Caribbean and U.S. last month and likely caused as much as $8 billion in insured losses when it came ashore in Louisiana, according to AIR Worldwide, a risk modeling firm.
A seventeenth storm could also form soon from a tropical depression lingering near Cabo Verde off Africa's coast.
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