Tropical Storms Bret and Cindy became the first named Atlantic storms of the 2023 hurricane season. This marks the first time since record keeping began in 1851 that two named storms formed in the Atlantic in the month of June.

Bret brought winds, heavy rain and swells of up to 15 feet to islands in the eastern Caribbean on Friday, June 23. Officials in the island of Martinique said they were searching for four people who apparently were aboard a lifeboat after their catamaran sank during the storm. Islands throughout the Caribbean braced itself ahead of the storm’s arrival.

“Yes, I’m pretty much prepared for the storm. We do all our preparations from early May,” Barbados resident Gerrick Bynoe said Thursday, June 22. “Am I worried about Storm Bret? A little bit because it seems very similar to other tropical storms that had a major impact, similar to Lili and Tomas.”

Meanwhile, Cindy’s maximum sustained winds were around 50 mph Friday morning. It was expected to remain a tropical storm as it heads into open waters “well east and northeast of the northern Leeward Islands through early next week,” according to the National Hurricane Center (NHC).

Storms Bret and Cindy followed Tropical Storm Arlene, which formed in the Gulf of Mexico early in June. According to NBC6’s Hurricane Specialist John Morales, there is “a vigorous tropical wave rolling off the west coast of Africa,” though it hasn’t been mentioned by the NHC as a candidate to become a new tropical depression or storm.

“But given the current setup in the main development region of the Atlantic, don’t count out that possibility,” Morales wrote. “Keep in mind that the third named storm in the Atlantic doesn’t normally form until Aug. 3! We are six weeks ahead of schedule, thanks in good part to the silly-hot water across the Atlantic Ocean. Tropical cyclones need, and derive their energy, from the warm sea surface.”