Tropical Storm Gonzalo forms, becoming earliest 7th named storm on record

This satellite image shows Tropical Storm Gonzalo, July 22, 2020. – (NOAA)By MAX GOLEMBO and MELISSA GRIFFIN, ABC News

(NEW YORK) — Tropical Storm Gonzalo formed in the Atlantic Ocean on Wednesday morning, making it the earliest seventh named storm on record.

Gonzalo is expected to travel over the island of Grenada and just south of Barbados this weekend, bringing gusty winds and heavy rain.

The tropical storm is forecast to become a hurricane as it moves closer to the southern Caribbean islands.

Gonzalo will head into the central Caribbean by early next week, potentially somewhere south of Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic.

Meanwhile, a tropical wave is in the Gulf of Mexico on Wednesday morning.

The National Hurricane Center is giving this system about a 50% chance to develop into a tropical depression or a tropical storm. Should it become one, it would be named Hanna.

Regardless of the storm’s development, several inches of heavy rain is possible for eastern Texas by the end of the week and into the weekend.

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