Hurricane Alex: Highly Unusual January Storm Forms in the Atlantic Ocean

Every so often, tropical storms or hurricanes form in December, just after the end of the season, but to see this in January is very unusual. The center was located around 400 miles south of Faial Island in the central Azores.

The Hurricane Center’s forecast discussion on Thursday morning states: “Remarkably, Alex has undergone the transformation into a hurricane”.

The Azores Meteorological Service issued a hurricane warning for several islands in the central Azores, as hurricane conditions are expected to spread over the islands by early Friday.

Satellite images showed Hurricane Alex, a well-defined tropical storm, churning in the open Atlantic, closer to Africa but at about the latitude of Jacksonville, North Carolina. An El Nino-related tropical storm formed southwest of Hawaii last week. The main characteristic is thunderstorms that are fueled by the warm atmosphere instead of by warm ocean waters, which occur in tropical systems.

Amazingly, in the dead of winter, a rare hurricane is swirling in the eastern Atlantic Ocean.

Alex is the first January hurricane to form since 1938 and only the fourth January hurricane on record since 1851, CNN reported.

Meteorologists have been watching Alex for almost a week after it formed off a frontal boundary off the southeast USA coastline, he said. Alex has maximum winds of 80 miles per hour and will affect the Azores as it moves northward. Hurricane warnings have been issued across the island. The capital city of the Azores, Ponta Delgada is also under threat with Hurricane Alex expected to dump between 3 to 7 inches of rain across the region. Flight cancellations in and out of local airports are expected due to the storm.

The hurricane center said that Alex’s appearance was more ragged on Friday morning.

“These rains could produce life-threatening flash floods and mud slides”, the NHC continued. “Near the coast, the surge will be accompanied by large and destructive waves”. In fact, even from mainland Europe, the hurricane is 900 miles away.

They have been threatened by hurricanes before but they usually lose their strength as they move into colder northern water.

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