A local Civil Protection Service on Thursday issued a weather red alert for five of Portugal’s nine Azores Islands after a massive hurricane was detected in the Atlantic Ocean. This is the highest of four levels of alert, indicating extreme risk. According to the US National Hurricane Centre, this is the first January hurricane in the ocean since 1938, and has been dubbed “Alex”. Residents on the islands have been told that they might experience waves up to 60 feet high and winds up to 160 kilometres an hour.

The Centre claims the only other hurricane that was present in the ocean in January in all of these years was Hurricane Alice in 1955. However, Alice formed in December and carried on into the next month. The government of the Azores Islands, an autonomous region of Portugal, advised kindergartens to remain closed and asked residents to make sure their drainage systems were working correctly. The hurricane is expected to move over the islands on Friday, but might weaken as it reaches colder Northern waters.