Hurricane Alex 2016: Alex becomes rare January hurricane in Atlantic

But the emergence of Hurricane Alex is the first time since 1938 that a hurricane has formed in January in the Atlantic, according to the hurricane centre, which has records going back to 1851.

“It’s rather surprising and remarkable”, Richard Pasch, senior hurricane specialist for the National Hurricane Center, tells our Newscast unit.

Alex’s strength is surprising, because tropical storms thrive most over warm waters, something that’s unexpected in the North Atlantic in the middle of winter.

A local Civil Protection Service on Thursday issued a weather red alert for five of Portugal’s nine Azores Islands after a massive hurricane was detected in the Atlantic Ocean.

The hurricane was centered about 560km (350m) south of Faial Island in the central Azores and was moving north-northeast at about 35kph (22mph).

Alex is not just the first named storm for the 2016 calendar year. Hurricane Alex has formed in the Atlantic, which is very rare in January.

The hurricane center warned heavy rain – as much as 7 inches – could spur life-threatening flash floods and mudslides in the Azores, an island chain 850 miles west of Portugal that’s home to about 250,000 people.

The National Hurricane Center issued a Hurricane advisory.

The current El Nino event – warmer-than-average sea surface temperatures in the central Pacific Ocean near the equator – arrived earlier this year, and has strengthened over time (see Daily GPI, Dec. 10, 2015; March 6, 2015).

Nevertheless, it said Alex was likely to lose its tropical characteristics by Friday afternoon or overnight as it moved over colder waters. Historically, only 0.5 percent of tropical storm activity has occurred prior to June 1.

This NOAA satellite image taken Thursday, Jan. 14, 2016 at 12:45 AM EST shows a stationary front across the Bahamas and Cuba.

Tropical-storm-force winds are expected to begin over portions of the Azores tonight.

Hurricane Alex, with maximum sustained winds of 85 miles per hour, is projected to head nearly straight north, a track that would pose no threat to the United States. “In 72 hours, we expect it to dissipate as it’s approaching Greenland”.