'Unheard of' Atlantic hurricane forms in January for the first time since 1938

It has been 78 years since a hurricane formed in the Atlantic Ocean during the month of January — a drought that came to an end on Thursday with the "unheard of" formation of Hurricane Alex. The storm has peak winds of 85 miles per hour, just short of the strength of the 1938 January hurricane, The Washington Post reports.

"Remarkably, Alex has undergone the transformation into a hurricane. A distinct eye is present, embedded within a fairly symmetric mass of deep convection," the National Hurricane Center marveled during its 10 a.m. discussion on Thursday.

Alex is located 490 miles south of the Azores, an autonomous region of Portugal, and tracking in that direction. The Weather Channel's Jonathan Erdman points out that only 10 hurricanes have ever tracked within 200 miles of the Azores, and all of them occurred in August or September. The government of the Azores has issued hurricane warnings as a precaution.

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