This is just the second hurricane on record to form in the eastern Atlantic Ocean the month of January.
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Hurricane Alex was forecast to have sustained winds of 85-mph with higher gusts.
The Civil Protection Service in Azores has issued a weather red alert, the highest of four warnings that indicates extreme risk, for five of the archipelago’s nine islands.
Alex has strengthened over waters that usually are not warm enough to support hurricane activity.
Alex was expected to be at hurricane strength when it passes over part of the Azores on Friday morning.
On this path, Alex is expected to produce 3 to 5 inches of rain over the Azores through Friday.
Alex is the first Atlantic Hurricane of 2016. Another storm, Alice, formed at the end of December, 1954, and dissipated a week later in 1955.
Pali, in the central Pacific, is the the earliest hurricane ever recorded over the Central Pacific Basin in a calendar year, forming 19 days earlier than the previous record holder, Hurricane Ekeka of 1992. An El Niño-related tropical storm formed south-west of Hawaii last week.
Alex has become a hurricane near the Azores in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean.
The forecaster who wrote the discussion noted that it is rare to see a hurricane form above waters that have a temperature colder than 20 degrees Celsius, or 68 degrees Fahrenheit.
About 900 miles from Europe and 2,300 miles from the United States, the Azores are marked by rolling green hills and volcanic peaks.
A rare January hurricane has formed far out in the Atlantic, the first to form in the month since 1938, BBC News reports.
A unsafe storm surge is also expected to bring significant coastal flooding to the islands.
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However, Alex had an eye visible in satellite images on Thursday morning and a fairly symmetric cloud field – characteristics of a tropical system. “In 72 hours, we expect it to dissipate as it’s approaching Greenland”.
