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A rare January Atlantic hurricane, Alex, made landfall in The Azores early Friday as a tropical storm,
according to the National Hurricane Center, and has now made the transition to a non-tropical lowpressure system in the northeast Atlantic Ocean.
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.
(MORE: Could a Weakening El Nio Cause an Active Hurricane Season?)
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.
Alex first formed as a subtropical storm Wednesday afternoon. A subtropical storm displays features
of both tropical and non-tropical systems, including a broad wind field, no cold or warm fronts, and
generally low-topped thunderstorms displaced from the center of the system. Sometimes subtropical
storms can become fully tropical over the course of time as Alex's transition into a hurricane
demonstrates.
(MORE: Tropical Versus Subtropical Storms)