Rare January Hurricane Alex Made Landfall in The Azores as a Tropical Storm

The center of Alex made landfall on the island of Terceira in the central Azores around 9:15 a.m. AST Friday with maximum estimated sustained winds of 70 mph, according to the NHC. The Azores are a group of Portuguese islands located 800 to 900 miles west of Portugal's mainland.

Tropical storm-force winds were observed in parts of The Azores Friday. Santa Maria has gusted over 50 mph and Ponta Delgada has seen gusts approach 50 mph as of early Friday. 

Alex first became a hurricane in the eastern Atlantic Ocean Thursday, making it just the second hurricane on record to form in that basin during the month of January. The last hurricane that formed in the Atlantic during January was in 1938, according to NOAA's historical hurricane tracker database. Alex is also the first hurricane to occur in the Atlantic in January since Alice in 1955. Alice initially formed into a hurricane on Dec. 31, 1954, but then remained a hurricane into early January 1955.

Alex became the strongest January hurricane on record Thursday when its winds reached an estimated 85 mph. This surpassed the 80-mph peak of both Alice and the 1938 hurricane.

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Alex was also only the second hurricane to form in any month in a zone of the eastern Atlantic Ocean east of 30 degrees west longitude and north of 30 degrees north latitude. Hurricane Vince in 2005 was the only other in the historical record.

All previous other hurricanes tracking within 200 nautical miles of The Azores in the historical record occurred in either August or September.

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Early Season Storm History

The Atlantic hurricane season officially runs from June 1 through Nov. 30, but storms have, on an occasional basis, formed before and after that date.

According to the National Hurricane Center, Alex's formation on Wednesday made it the first tropical or subtropical storm to form in January since 1978. It's also only the fourth known storm to form in January since records began in 1851. As mentioned earlier, Alex is also only the second known hurricane to form in the Atlantic during the month of January.

Based on the long-term average, about once every 10 years, a tropical storm forms before June, most often in the month of May. This includes Tropical Storm Ana, which began as a subtropical storm in early May of 2015, eventually transitioning into a tropical system.

Likewise, roughly once every 10 years, a tropical storm has formed in the month of December. Post-season and pre-season tropical systems are usually relatively weak, in part due to cooler sea-surface temperatures in the winter and spring months, limiting the ability for such storms to intensify.

Alex's History Before Becoming a Named Storm

The non-tropical low pressure system that formed into Alex was located off the Southeast coast Jan. 7.  On Jan. 8, the low then passed near Bermuda, where wind gusts topped out at 59 mph, causing sporadic power outages and disrupting air travel, the Royal Gazette reported.

In the days thereafter, the low moved east and southeast through the Atlantic as a hazard to marine interests with a large area of strong winds and high surf. Since Tuesday, the low took on more characteristics of a subtropical storm, and that's why the National Hurricane Center classified it as the first named storm of the 2016 hurricane season on Wednesday. On Thursday morning, Alex had made a complete transition into a hurricane.

This animation shows the non-tropical low that formed into Alex move east across the Atlantic Jan. 7 into Jan. 13

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