Elsa was the earliest hurricane in the Caribbean since Emily in 2005 and also the earliest forming fifth-named storm on record in the Atlantic Ocean. Elsa was first monitored by the National Hurricane Center as a tropical wave on June 29, and was designated as a Potential Tropical Cyclone on the next day, while moving westward across the Atlantic. On July 1, the system became Tropical Storm Elsa. Elsa rapidly intensified, the following morning on July 2, Elsa was upgraded to a Category 1 hurricane, before peaking later that day, with maximum 1-minute sustained winds of 85 mph pressure of 991 millibars. This made Elsa the strongest July hurricane recorded in the eastern Caribbean Sea since Emily in 2005, and also the fastest-moving Atlantic tropical cyclone recorded undergoing rapid intensification in that part of the Atlantic. Elsa caused extensive damage in Barbados. There was one fatality with the storm in Florida in Jacksonville. An EF-2 tornado hit at a southeast Georgia military base where over a dozen people were injured. The tornado caused extensive damage. Elsa went up through Florida into Georgia and eventually the Carolinas, the Mid-Atlantic region and the northeastern US. Elsa intensified in Virginia over land to 50 mph after briefly weakening in Georgia and the Carolinas. Elsa dumped a lot of rain on Florida, New York and surrounding states and spawned several tornadoes in different states.
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