Storm surge: A unsafe storm surge is expected to produce significant coastal flooding near and to the east of the center of Alex.
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Alex formed six weeks after the end of the official hurricane season, a period from June 1 to November 30 that sees the vast majority of hurricanes.
A subtropical storm in the Atlantic has strengthened into a hurricane, the first hurricane to form in January since 1938.
While the group of islands is just 2,300 miles from the United States and about 900 miles from Europe, CNN notes that weather companies do not expect Hurricane Alex to directly affect the continents. Its maximum sustained winds decreased to near 75 miles per hour (120 kph), but the U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami said it expected little change in Alex’s strength over the coming days.
Other islands in the Azores that have been put under storm warnings include San Miguel and Santa Maria. From a climatological perspective, this makes flawless sense, as tropical cyclones generally draw their power from the warmer waters near the equator during the warmest time of the year. It will pick up speed over the Azores, which is home to 250,000 people, on Friday morning, according to the National Hurricane Center. Tropical Storm Pali, only the third such system to develop in January in over 40 years, had weakened to a depression by Thursday and was expected to dissipate in the next day or so.
Hurricane Alex is the first hurricane to form in the month of January since 1938. The storm could lead to up to seven inches of rain in isolated areas of the Azores and three to five inches throughout. According to The Atlantic, the storm could bring flash floods and mudslides, as well as large, risky waves near the coast.
“The good news is that even though we have got a hurricane in January, that is not a harbinger of what the 2016 hurricane season will be like”, he said.
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A lot of you may be asking if this is because of El Nino and the answer may surprise you.
