The only hurricane in March happened more than 100 years ago

An Atlantic hurricane forming in January is unusual, but Alex did it 10 years ago this week, and it later made landfall.

In the Atlantic Ocean on March 6, 1908, something unusual happened. A tropical depression formed, strengthened to a tropical storm and later made landfall in the Leeward Islands as a Category 2 hurricane.

Hurricanes were not named in those days, but this one is sometimes referred to as the 1908 March Hurricane. The storm moved to the southwest, an unusual direction for a hurricane, making landfall on the island of St. Kitts with 100-mph winds. To this day, it stands as the second-strongest hurricane ever observed between December and May.

Heavy damage to buildings and crops was reported on St. Kitts, the nearby island of Nevis and Saint Martin. At least one person was killed when their ship sank. Another ship torn from its moorings was rediscovered in Puerto Rico weeks later.

This hurricane remains the only Atlantic tropical storm to form in March since records began in 1850. March is the only month with just a single recorded tropical storm or hurricane since the 1800s, every other month has had multiple storms throughout history.

The 1908 season's second hurricane also took place before the season's start of June 1, making landfall in North Carolina and Connecticut in late May.

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