Could the hurricane season could get a very early start in 2023?

Hurricane watches had their eyes trained on the central Atlantic, where a suspicious-looking system was spinning off the U.S. East Coast.

Here was the satellite view on Monday morning:

The National Hurricane Center has taken notice, issuing a special statement on the system on Monday morning.

Forecasters said it was a non-tropical area of low pressure and was expected to move into colder water soon and so it had no chance of transitioning to a tropical or subtropical storm. It was no threat to the U.S.

Still, it had “that look,” and caught the eye of weather watchers on Monday morning.

Believe it or not, tropical systems in January are not unheard of. In fact, there has been a hurricane in January.

That was Alex, which formed in the northern Atlantic near the Azores on Jan. 13, 2016, and strengthened to a hurricane with 85 mph winds before weakening.

According to the hurricane center Alex was the first hurricane to form in the Atlantic in January since 1938, and the first hurricane to be ongoing in January since Alice in 1955.