First Cyclone Of 2023 Hit In January, Months Before Hurricane Season Begins, NHC Finds

The National Hurricane Center tweeted Thursday that the first storm of the 2023 Atlantic hurricane season occurred well before the season even started. Forecasters said a reanalysis of a major winter storm moving up the US East Coast in January qualified as the first tropical cyclone of the year. 

In the statement released Thursday, NHC researchers said that the storm on Jan. 16, about 300 miles north of Bermuda, was designated a subtropical storm. 

NHC has determined that a subtropical storm formed in the Atlantic basin off the northeastern U.S. coast in mid-January 2023, and it will be designated as the first cyclone of the 2023 Atlantic season with ID AL012023.https://t.co/6idLKYJqjL pic.twitter.com/f047dch647

— National Hurricane Center (@NHC_Atlantic) May 11, 2023

Though this storm won’t be given a name retrospectively, it will still be included in the year’s total count for the hurricane season that begins on June 1. 

As a result, the next cyclone to form in the Atlantic basin this season will be AL022023, and advisories will be issued in AWIPS bin 2. If it begins as a tropical depression, it would be “Tropical Depression Two.” If it becomes a tropical storm, it would be named “Arlene.”

— National Hurricane Center (@NHC_Atlantic) May 11, 2023

A tropical system in January is rare but not unprecedented. Bloomberg pointed out:

Eight out of the last nine years have now produced storms before the official June 1 start of the six-month season. It’s also the second January storm since 2016, when Hurricane Alex formed far from land in the central Atlantic. Only 2022 failed to bring forth a pre-season system. 

As for the outlook this season, researchers at Colorado State University expect tropical activity to be slightly below average due to El Nino producing upper-level winds that help break apart hurricane formation in the Atlantic.