Alex, first January hurricane since 1938, forms in Atlantic

Hurricane Alex formed in the Atlantic on Wednesday, becoming the first hurricane to form in the region in January since 1938.

NHC forecasts landfall on the islands on Friday, packing waves of up to 18 meters or 60 feet high, and wind gusts measured at 160 kilometers per hour, BBC reported.

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

Still, the early hurricane does not necessarily portend an unusually active storm period during the Atlantic hurricane season from June through November, Feltgen said. Also using this tool from the National Hurricane Center, it shows that Hurricane Alice was spinning in the Atlantic in January of 1955, however the storm actually formed in late December of 1954.

Alex is expected to produce 3 to 5 inches of rain over the Azores through Friday, according to the National Hurricane Center. It could get warmer; it could get colder.

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

However, Alex had an eye visible in satellite images on Thursday morning and a fairly symmetric cloud field – characteristics of a tropical system.

Hurricane warnings are in effect for the central Azores and tropical storm warnings are in effect for the eastern Azores.

Is Alex a 2015 or 2016 hurricane name? Even its position is weird, as it’s making its way toward Portugal’s Azores islands. The last hurricane that formed in the Atlantic during January was in 1938.

2016. We start a new hurricane name list when we start a new year.

Alex is not forecast to come near the United States.

“The decrease in temperature from the surface to upper levels was strong enough to create convective instability”, Braun said.