Rene weakens to tropical depression in Central Atlantic

Sept. 10 (UPI) -- Rene weakened Saturday to a tropical depression in the Central Atlantic, currently posing no threat to land.

In its 5 p.m. AST Sunday update, the National Hurricane Center said Rene was about 1,145 miles northeast of the Northern Leeward Islands. It had maximum sustained winds of 30 mph and was moving northwest at 9 mph.

The NHC said a slower northwestward motion is expected later Sunday, and a slow westward motion is forecast by Sunday night. On Monday and Tuesday, the system is forecast to move west-southwestward.

The NHC said the storm will degenerate into a trough of low pressure in four or five days.

Rene is a short distance behind Tropical Storm Paulette, which also formed early Monday.

As was the case with Paulette, there is a significant chance more early formation records will fall and join Cristobal, Edouard, Fay, Gonzalo, Hanna, Isaias, Josephine, Kyle, Laura, Marco, Nana and Omar as top of the list for early formation for their respective letters. On Saturday, Sally formed in the Gulf Coast.

Before Rene, Rita, which formed on Sept. 18, 2005, was the record holder for the earliest "R" named storm on record.

Early this summer, AccuWeather meteorologists predicted a hyperactive peak hurricane season. Meteorologists are calling for up to 24 tropical storms and up to 11 hurricanes in total this season.

These numbers mean that the Greek alphabet will have to be utilized for tropical storm names, which was only done in one other season: 2005.