It is the first storm to form over the Atlantic in January for nearly 80 years and anxious residents are fearing the worst.
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Hurricane Alex was forecast to have sustained winds of 85-mph with higher gusts. Winds reached 25 miles from the storm’s center.
The islands’ Civil Protection Service issued a weather red alert, the highest of four warnings that indicates extreme risk, for five of the archipelago’s nine islands.
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.
Alex is the first hurricane to have formed in the Atlantic during the month of January since 1938, U.S. weather forecasters said. If the storm follows the current forecast track, its centre will move near or over parts of the Azores Friday morning, NASA said.
This NOAA satellite image taken Friday, Jan. 15, 2016 at 12:45 AM EST shows a stationary front over the southern Bahamas and Cuba.
Alex will be moving over even colder waters soon, and the hurricane center expects the hurricane to lose its tropical characteristics and become an extratropical storm in about 36 hours.
A hurricane warning has been issued for the Azores. Alex was expected to remain a hurricane as it moves over the islands.
Global warming made Alex’s formation much more likely to occur, and the same can be said for the formation of Hurricane Pali in the Central Pacific. As a precaution, schools will be closed for the duration of the storm while the population was advised to stay out of harm’s way. These rains could produce life-threatening flash floods and mud slides.
A risky storm surge is also expected to bring significant coastal flooding to the islands.
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The perplexing hurricane on Thursday was more than 3,000 miles from the Lowcountry, headed north toward the Azores, where it could make landfall.
