This Is 5th Time on Record We've Had 10 Hurricanes by Now

The 10th hurricane of a busy Atlantic storm season is headed toward Bermuda. Hurricane Epsilon became a Category 1 storm late Tuesday, according to the National Hurricane Center, which describes it as churning some 400 miles east-southeast of Bermuda and moving west-northwest at 12mph. "Some additional strengthening is possible today, followed by little change in strength into the weekend," the NHC says, per Fox News. The storm is expected to track east of Bermuda, which is under a tropical storm watch, on Thursday. Current projections show the storm veering northeast and into open ocean over the weekend. But that doesn't mean the US is in the clear.

Large swells already affecting Bermuda, the Bahamas, the Greater Antilles, and the Leeward Islands "are expected to reach portions of the east coast of the United States and Atlantic Canada during the next couple of days," NHC says. This is the 26th named storm of the season, which extends to Nov. 30, and the earliest the 26th one has occurred, coming a month ahead of 2005's version, Colorado State University meteorologist Philip Klotzbach says. There were a record 27 named storms in 2005, "14 of which were hurricanes," per the New York Times. Klotzbach says there have been only four years on record—1969, 1995, 2005 and 2017—in which more than 10 hurricanes were reported by Oct. 20. (The 25th named storm, Hurricane Delta, made landfall in Louisiana.)