Tropical Storm Cindy has formed behind Tropical Storm Bret, in the first case of two storms in the tropical Atlantic in June since record keeping began.
The historic event signals an early and aggressive start to the Atlantic hurricane season that began June 1st and whose peak usually runs from mid-August to mid-October.
Forecasters blamed unusually high sea temperatures for the rare development.
Cindy is expected to remain a tropical storm as it heads northeast into open waters.
Meanwhile, Bret brought winds, heavy rain and swells of up to 15 feet early Friday to islands in the eastern Caribbean that shut down to prepare for potential landslides and flooding.
Officials in the French Caribbean island of Martinique said they were searching for four people who apparently were aboard a lifeboat after their catamaran sank during the storm.
Power outages were reported in St. Vincent and the Grenadines, with at least 130 people seeking protection in government shelters as the storm washed away one home and caused severe damage to several others.
Authorities in Barbados said they received more than a dozen reports of damage across the island, according to the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency.
The storm’s center was west of St. Vincent and moving west into open waters at 18 miles per hour. Its maximum sustained winds were 60 miles per hour.