Tropical Storm Gonzalo forms, the Atlantic’s earliest ‘G’

MIAMI (AP) — The National Hurricane Center in Miami says Tropical Storm Gonzalo has formed the middle of the Atlantic Ocean.

This sets a record for the earliest named seventh tropical storm of the Atlantic hurricane season.

Forecasters say Gonzalo was about 1,250 miles east of the Southern Windward Islands, with maximum sustained winds of 45 mph, moving west-northwest at 12 mph.

Gonzalo remained far offshore Wednesday, on a path that could eventually take the storm into the lower Caribbean Sea by this weekend.

The storm’s early strengthening breaks a record set by Tropical Storm Gert, which formed on July 24, 2005.