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Hurricane Franklin weakens to tropical storm

Hurricane season is peaking
Posted at 1:36 PM, Aug 09, 2017
and last updated 2017-08-10 06:45:39-04

The Atlantic hurricane season peaks every year in August and September, and this year is no exception.

RELATED: Track every tropical storm and hurricane with the Storm Shield app

Hurricane Franklin, spinning in the Bay of Campeche off the coast of Mexico, is this year's seventh tropical system to form in the Atlantic.

Franklin made landfall early Thursday morning as this year's first hurricane.

In an average year, the Atlantic season's first hurricane usually forms on August 10, so Franklin would be right on schedule.

From here, there's an average of one hurricane roughly every two weeks, and the National Hurricane Center is currently watching another disturbance in the middle of the Atlantic that could become Gert as early as this weekend.

Franklin officially attained hurricane status at 5 p.m. ET on Wednesday, with top sustained winds of 75 MPH. The storm could make landfall near Veracruz, Mexico, which has a population of nearly 600,000.

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