MIAMI — The National Hurricane Center announced that a weather system they'd been observing turned out to be a subtropical storm formed in the Atlantic basin in mid-January 2023.
The subtropical storm that formed over the northeastern U.S. is being numbered the first cyclone of 2023 in the Atlantic basin, according to the NHC. A subtropical storm occurs when a system's maximum sustained surface wind speed reaches 39 mph or more.
What's a subtropical cyclone?
You can think of a subtropical cyclone as a mix between a tropical cyclone and an extratropical cyclone. It forms over tropical waters and has a closed circulation, like a tropical cyclone. But it has the strongest winds away from the center along with the wind field and rain not being as symmetrical, like an extratropical cyclone.
January's subtropical storm has been given the name AL012023 as its system ID. The next system would be named AL022023. If the system starts as a tropical depression it'll be designated as "Tropical Depression 2" and if it becomes a tropical storm, it will be named Arlene.
Typically, tropical cyclones form during hurricane season from June 1 through Nov. 30. However, systems can develop outside of the time frame.
10 Tampa Bay's Tyler Moore contributed to this article.