Epsilon strengthened into a major Category 3 hurricane in the central Atlantic on Wednesday, becoming the fourth major hurricane of the record-breaking 2020 season. Epsilon has weakened since then.

What You Need To Know

  • Epsilon became the 10th hurricane of the Atlantic season on Tuesday night

  • It then strengthened into a major hurricane on Wednesday before weakening

  • Epsilon will continue to move over open waters

Epsilon is set to stay in the open Atlantic and will not directly impact the United States. High surf and rip currents will impact the East Coast during the next few days.

Bermuda saw some impacts in the form of blustery winds on Thursday. Although, the hurricane moved further east from Bermuda Thursday night, lessening impacts and prompting all warnings to be dropped.

Epsilon began as Tropical Depression Twenty-Seven, which formed in the central Atlantic Monday morning and strengthened into a tropical storm a few hours later.

Epsilon is the fifth name on the Greek list. This is the earliest Epsilon to form in the Atlantic. The last time that happened was in 2005, when Epsilon formed at the end of November.

Atlantic Overview

We're watching another area in the Caribbean Sea that has a high chance of further development over the next five days.

It looks like the area has shifted and is going to making its way into the Gulf of Mexico. Cities around the Gulf Coast have the potential to be impacted. We'll keep a close eye on this area over the next few days.

The Record-Breaking Season

You name the record, and there's a decent chance that the 2020 Atlantic tropical season's broken it.

From the earliest named storms on record to a record-breaking 10 U.S. landfalls already this season, 2020 is producing a laundry list of records - and we've still got about six weeks to go in the official season.

The National Hurricane Center named three storms on the same day, September 18, leading to another record for this hurricane season. This pushed us into the Greek alphabet.

We've now crossed Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta, and Epsilon off the list, all the earliest times on record for those names in the Greek alphabet.

It's only the second time the Greek alphabet has been used to name storms. That last time was in 2005 where we made it to Zeta, the sixth name on the list.

And on Tuesday night, 2020 became only the fifth season since 1966 to have 10 hurricanes by this point of the season.

Finally, Epsilon's major hurricane status also means it's the fourth major huricane (Category 3 or greater) of the 2020 season. It's also the second major hurricane to form this month, after Delta. 

With this in mind, though, here's a bit more on how Hurricane Epsilon (and other storms over the open Atlantic Ocean) help create balance and can actually be a good thing.