A tropical depression which formed Wednesday in the Atlantic Ocean has strengthened to become the fifth named storm of the 2021 hurricane season, according to the National Hurricane Center.
Officials said Thursday morning that Tropical Storm Elsa was about 780 miles east-southeast of the Windward Islands and moving west at 25 mph. Elsa is expected to pick up speed in the next 24 to 36 hours on a path toward the southern coast of Hispaniola, according to NHC.
With maximum sustained winds of 40 mph, NHC officials said Elsa was the earliest known fifth named storm on record in the Atlantic basin, breaking the former record set when Tropical Storm Edouard formed on July 6, 2020.
“Some strengthening is forecast during the next couple days,” NHC senior hurricane specialist Jack Beven said in an 8 a.m. advisory.
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It was not immediately clear whether Elsa would reach the U.S. Forecasters with NHC said Thursday that “significant uncertainty” remained in the track forecast beyond three to five days.
“Interests in Florida should monitor updates to the forecast for this system, but it is too soon to determine what if any impacts could occur there next week given the uncertainty in the long-range forecast,” NHC senior hurricane specialist Richard Pasch said in a forecast discussion released by the agency early Thursday.