WASHINGTON – The United States National Hurricane Centre added a new storm to the 2023 season – and it has not even started yet. 

If you cannot remember the tempest, do not blame yourself. It was just announced on Thursday, and the event in question happened in January. A re-analysis of a massive winter system rolling up the US East Coast shows that it qualified as a subtropical storm, which usually would have been given a name, the hurricane centre said. 

While this one would not be named retroactively, it will count in the annual total. 

Eight out of the last nine years have now produced storms before the official June 1 start of the six-month season. It is 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. 

The parade of early storms has sparked discussions in recent years about whether the Atlantic season should start earlier, but no official changes have been made. The National Hurricane Centre will begin issuing tropical weather outlooks in the Atlantic starting on May 15, when the eastern Pacific hurricane season official gets under way. 

Improvements in technology have allowed more storms to be detected earlier, and forecasters at the Hurricane Centre have said increasing numbers are not related to climate change. However, the warming Earth has made storms that do form more intense and have allowed them to carry more water, raising flood risks. 

The next storm that forms in the Atlantic will be named Arlene, but unlike every other year, in 2023 the “A” storm will be the second. BLOOMBERG