January is not typically a month in which tropical systems develop in the central Pacific, but Tropical Depression One-C formed Thursday morning becoming earliest central Pacific tropical cyclone on record.

This is on the heels of a historically active 2015 tropical season in the Pacific Ocean, including a Tropical Depression Nine-C, which formed near the end of the year and dissipated on Jan. 1, 2016.

Tropical Depression One-C was located about 1,500 miles southwest of Honolulu, Hawaii as of early Thursday morning local time.

The earliest central Pacific #tropical cyclone on record developed this morning. https://t.co/qnJa2ZBbqg pic.twitter.com/Y15n29IQuA

— The Weather Channel (@weatherchannel) January 7, 2016

Sufficiently warm sea-surface temperatures and relatively low wind shear in the vicinity of the system suggest that this system may be able to organize into a tropical storm later Thursday.

The system would get the central Pacific name “Pali” if it reaches tropical storm status east of the International Date Line.

Tropical Depression One-C is expected to move slowly toward the north and northwest over the next few days. This system is currently no threat to land. The latest map of the projected path can be found here.

Area of thunderstorms in the Central Pacific has been upgraded to Tropical Depression One-C by RSMC Honolulu. pic.twitter.com/T3PUZeQfzq

— Mike Adcock (@senorpepr) January 7, 2016

Dating back to 1949, only two tropical storms have formed in the central Pacific in the month of January. Tropical Storm Winona was the first on Jan. 13, 1989 and the second was Ekeka on Jan. 28, 1992, which reached Category 3 hurricane intensity amidst the moderate El Niño of 1991-92.

El Niño has played a role in the formation of this unusual tropical cyclone. According to the Central Pacific Hurricane Center, “This low-latitude out-of-season system has tapped into significant directional shear of the low-level winds, with an El Niño related westerly wind burst south of the system, and prevailing easterly trade winds to the north providing the large scale conditions conducive for development.”

If this potential Pacific tropical system weren’t strange enough, the Brazilian Navy Hydrographic Center’s Serviço Meteorológico Marinho analyzed a tropical depression off the east coast of Brazil in the South Atlantic this week. It’s just another rarity in what has been an odd last couple of weeks in the tropics.

The official hurricane season ends on November 30 in the central Pacific and does not begin in 2016 until June 1.

– CNN