Tropical Storm Wilfred forms in Atlantic, setting record as forecasters run out of storm names

Tropical Storm Wilfred officially formed Friday morning and has already made a record as it moves toward the east coast. Wilfred is the earliest “W” named storm on record.

Wilfred marks the last name on the National Hurricane Center’s list of storm names for the season, which means the Greek alphabet will be used to name additional storms.

The only time forecasters have ever gone on to the Greek alphabet was in the deadly 2005 hurricane season, when Hurricane Katrina demolished New Orleans. 

“Get out the Greek alphabet for the rest of 2020,” the National Hurricane Center tweeted Friday morning. They will now use Alpha, Beta and other Greek letters for future storm names.

The extremely active hurricane season is in its peak and should start to calm down in just a few weeks.