Hurricane Alex (2010)

Hurricane Alex

Category 2 hurricane (SSHWS/NWS)
Hurricane Alex intensifying and approaching Mexico on June 30
Formed	June 25, 2010
Dissipated	July 2, 2010
Highest winds	1-minute sustained: 110 mph (175 km/h)
Lowest pressure	946 mbar (hPa); 27.94 inHg
Fatalities	33 direct, 18 indirect, 22 missing
Damage	$1.89 billion (2010 USD)
Areas affected	Greater Antilles, Central America, Yucatán Peninsula, northern Mexico, South Texas
Part of the 2010 Atlantic hurricane season

Hurricane Alex was a rare June hurricane and the first tropical cyclone to develop in the 2010 Atlantic hurricane season. Originating from an area of disturbed weather on June 25, 2010, it slowly developed in the western Caribbean Sea and struck Belize as a strong tropical storm. After entering the Gulf of Mexico, Alex became very large and encountered conditions favorable for gradual development. Early on June 30, the cyclone attained hurricane status as it approached northeastern Mexico, the first June hurricane in the Atlantic basin since Hurricane Allison in 1995, and the storm rapidly intensified just off the coast of Tamaulipas. Alex came ashore near Soto la Marina as a Category 2 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale.

Alex caused the deaths of at least 51 people along its path, and produced over $1.8 billion (2010 USD) in damage. The precursor of the hurricane produced substantial rainfall across the Greater Antilles, causing one death in the Dominican Republic. Fourteen people were killed in Central America as a result of flooding during the first landfall of Alex. In Mexico, the storm's outer rainbands killed three people in Acapulco, one person in Oaxaca, and another in Chiapas. At its final landfall, Alex caused at least fifteen deaths in Nuevo León, eight in Coahuila, six in Guanajuato, and one in both Tamaulipas and San Luis Potosí; an additional twenty persons were reported missing.