Hurricane Rudolph started out from a vigorous tropical wave in the eastern Atlantic near the Cape Verde Islands on August 24, 2018. It started moving westward into favorable conditions and quickly devloped into a tropical depression. The NHC gave the first advisories on Tropical Depression 17. It continued to strengthen, transitioning to a tropical storm, earning the name Rudolph and becoming the 18th named storm of the hyperactive 2018 hurricane season. The storm started heading northeast then turned, and entered the warm waters of the Caribbean. Rudolph explosively strengthened to Category 4 status in less than 30 hours.