Tropical Depression One-E Has Started the 2018 Eastern Pacific Hurricane Season Early, But it Won't Threaten Land

Tropical Depression One-E formed on Thursday afternoon well off the west coast of Mexico, kicking off the 2018 Eastern Pacific hurricane season, which doesn't officially begin until May 15.

(MORE: Hurricane Central)

The tropical depression is currently centered more than 1,400 miles west-southwest of the southern tip of Mexico's Baja California.​​​​​​

Additional strengthening is not expected as One-E is approaching an area of stronger wind shear to its west.

Tropical Depression One-E will, therefore, be short-lived, and given it's far from land and has weak steering winds, it will be no threat to land as it drifts toward the west-northwest through Friday night.

Though not expected, if the depression were to become a tropical storm, it would earn the first name of the 2018 Eastern Pacific hurricane season: Aletta.

(MORE: 2018 Atlantic Hurricane Season Outlook)

Another Early Start?

This is a case of déjà vu.

One year ago Wednesday, Tropical Storm Adrian became the earliest tropical cyclone on record to form in the Eastern Pacific Basin.

Adrian became a tropical depression, then strengthened to a tropical storm on May 9, 2017, south of the Pacific coasts of Mexico and Guatemala before wind shear tore it apart the following day.

The Eastern Pacific hurricane season runs from May 15 through Nov. 30, beginning roughly two weeks earlier than the Atlantic hurricane season. According to the National Hurricane Center, an average Eastern Pacific season has its first named storm by the second week of June.

(MORE: When the Atlantic Hurricane Season Starts Early)

And, unlike the current system, some of these storms had land impact.

Five of those May storms made landfall either in southeastern Mexico's Gulf of Tehuantepec or in Central America. One of these, Barbara in 2013, made landfall as a hurricane along the Gulf of Tehuantepec coast.

The 2015 Eastern Pacific hurricane season got off to a record start, including a frenetic May, fueled by an intensifying El Niño.

Hurricane Andres formed over the open waters on May 29, then intensified to Category 4 intensity as the calendar turned to June.

That was followed immediately by another Category 4 hurricane, Blanca, which first became a tropical depression on May 31.

Blanca went on to become the earliest landfalling tropical storm on record in Baja California, moving ashore on June 8.

(MORE: Here's How Eastern Pacific Storms Can Eventually Impact the U.S.)