In a rare winter occurrence, a North Atlantic hurricane, named Alex, attained Category 1 strength on the Saffir-Simpson hurricane wind scale in January 2016. Alex is only the second Atlantic hurricane known to have formed in the month of January. The first was an unnamed storm in 1938. Most Atlantic hurricanes occur during their official season from June 1 to November 30. See also: Atlantic Ocean; Cyclone; Hurricane; Tropical meteorology; Wind
Alex began as a tropical disturbance (low-pressure system) off the Atlantic coast of southern Florida on January 6, 2016 and slowly began moving north and east. On January 13, the disturbance became a tropical storm and was named. About 300 km south of the Azores on January 14, Alex became a hurricane with maximum sustained winds of 85 mi/h (137 km/h). According to the U.S. National Hurricane Center, Alex made landfall on the island of Terceira (38°N 27°W) in the Azores as a tropical storm on January 15 at 1315 UTC (9:15 a.m. local time) with maximum sustained winds of 70 mi/h (110 km/h). After passing Terceira, Alex headed northward and quickly began losing its tropical characteristics. On January 17, it joined with another low pressure system over the Labrador Sea near Greenland. See also: Air pressure; Maritime meteorology
