A record number of consecutive hurricanes made landfall on the U.S. East Coast this year, making it one of the most active storm seasons ever, government meteorologists report today.

The Atlantic hurricane season, which began June 1 and ends Sunday, delivered a total of 16 named storms, including six consecutive tropical cyclones — Dolly, Edouard, Fay, Gustav, Hanna and Ike — to the mainland. Eight were hurricanes, five of which were major storms of Category 3 strength or more, the National Hurricane Center says. (Category 3 storms carry winds of 111-to-130 miles, or 178-to-209 kilometers, per hour.)

Hurricane Paloma is increasing in intensity as it approaches the Cayman Islands, where the storm is expected to make landfall by late tonight or early tomorrow.

Paloma is a Category 1 hurricane with winds gusting near 80 miles (130 kilometers) per hour. But it could strengthen to a “major” Category 2 storm later today, and possibly ratchet up to a Category 3 tempest by tomorrow, according to the National Hurricane Center.

Category 2 hurricanes bring winds of 96 to 100 miles (154 to 177 kilometers) per hour, and Category 3 storms carry winds of 111 to 130 miles (178 to 209 kilometers) per hour, per the Safir-Simpson scale.

Ay, Paloma!

An exotically named tropical storm is eyeing weather-weary Cuba and could strengthen to a hurricane by tomorrow, according to the National Hurricane Center.

As of 10 a.m. Eastern time, Paloma was 75 miles (115 kilometers) Northeast of Cabo Gracias a Dios on the Nicaragua-Honduras border and about 265 miles (430 kilometers) south-southwest of Grand Cayman, the agency reported. Winds were gusting as fast as 45 miles (75 kilometers) per hour.

Paloma is expected to bring up to a foot of rain to the Cayman Islands, and two to four inches in Nicaragua. It could pass over Cuba and Jamaica by Sunday, and strengthen into a Category 2 hurricane with winds of 96 miles (154 kilometers) per hour, Reuters reports.

After a deadly run through Haiti during which 23 people were killed by floods and landslides, tropical storm Gustav is expected today to graduate to hurricane status as it bears down on Jamaica with winds whipping at 70 miles per hour, just shy of the 74 miles (119 kilometers) per hour required for a Category One hurricane, Reuters reports.

The storm is expected to pick up more strength from the warm waters south of Cuba en route to Jamaica, prompting the government there to issue a hurricane warning. This doesn't bode well for the U.S. Gulf Coast, as forecasters at the Miami-based U.S. National Hurricane Center predicted Gustav would turn "more to the west and the northwest" around the time it enters the Gulf of Mexico, and would become a "powerful hurricane" as it moves into the southern Gulf on Sunday, according to CBC News Canada.

This hurricane season's seventh storm, Gustav, has already had a bigger impact than all the storms that preceded it. It hasn't killed anyone or done any damage—though it may unleash flooding and mudslides in Haiti—except to drive oil prices above $117 a barrel (a feat the recent war in Georgia did not even accomplish).

The storm is strengthening, having reached Category 1 status—above 74 mile-per-hour winds—and the warm waters of the Gulf could give it a further boost. Forecasters are predicting it could be as strong as Category 4 by the time it churns through the heart of the oil and natural gas producing platforms in the Gulf—responsible for 20 percent of present U.S. oil production.