Alex eyes landfall

It didn't take long this year to produce the Atlantic's 1st hurricane.

GOES visible image shows a better organized Hurricane Alex approaching Mexico's Gulf Coast Wednesday.

Hurricane Alex is moving slowly (WNW 7 mph) toward shore today and is expected to make landfall along the coast of Mexico south of the Texas border just after midnight Thursday.

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Here are the stats as of early Wednesday from NHC. Updated stats here.

BULLETIN

HURRICANE ALEX INTERMEDIATE ADVISORY NUMBER 19A

NWS TPC/NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER MIAMI FL AL012010

700 AM CDT WED JUN 30 2010

...ALEX MOVING IN NO HURRY......

SUMMARY OF 700 AM CDT...1200 UTC...INFORMATION

----------------------------------------------

LOCATION...23.4N 95.3W

ABOUT 155 MI...250 KM E OF LA PESCA MEXICO

ABOUT 220 MI...355 KM SE OF BROWNSVILLE TEXAS

MAXIMUM SUSTAINED WINDS...80 MPH...130 KM/HR

PRESENT MOVEMENT...WNW OR 290 DEGREES AT 7 MPH...11 KM/HR

MINIMUM CENTRAL PRESSURE...959 MB...28.32 INCHES

Alex is a Category 1 storm on the Saffir-Simpson scale, but the slow moving storm may have enough time over the warm Gulf waters to strengthen before moving ashore. Winds could approach 100 mph just before landfall.

Alex is the first June hurricane to form in the Atlantic since 1995.

Rain bands from Alex reach as far east as the Louisiana coast today. Since Alex is a slow mover, one of the biggest threats will be extremely heavy rainfall in the order of 6 to 12 inches with isolated 20 inch totals over the next two days in northern Mexico and south Texas.

PH