SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico—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, forecasters said Friday.
The historic event signals an early and aggressive start to the Atlantic hurricane season that began June 1 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 (4.5 meters) 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….