UPDATE: Jimena is looking very good this afternoon on satellite after getting more disorganized this morning. The 11 AM advisory had her at 150 mph (Category 5 starts at 156 mph). Here's a Navy sat from 18:15Z.

I also forgot about Hurricane Linda, see purple text below.

Hurricane Jimena (pronounced he-MAY-nuh and not to be confused with other Hurricane Jimenas) intensified very rapidly over the eastern Pacific Ocean Saturday, from a Tropical Depression at 03Z to a Category 2 Hurricane at 21Z (18 hours). Another 18 hours later, she was a Category 4 storm, where she remains this morning. Here is a close-up photo from NASA as seen in Google Earth last night:

While that sounds like an awesome rapid intensitifaction, it's not a record. Here's how she ranks in pressure falls (based on the Hurricane FAQ, WikiPedia, and actual pressure measurements from Unisys tracks, in millibars):

East Pacific Hurricane Jimena 2009 (Track):- 59 mb in 36 hours - 42 mb in 26 hours - 36 mb in 11 hours - 22 mb in 6 hours - 16 mb in 4 hours

West Pacific Typhoon Forrest 1983: 100 mb in "just under 24 hours"West Pacific Typhoon Chebi 2006: 75 mb in 24 hrs, 60 mb in 6 hrs (tropical storm to Cat 4 in one advisory!)Atlantic Hurricane Wilma 2005: 53 mb in 5:23 hrs (track says 83 mb in 24 hours & 44 mb in 2 hrs)Hurricane Charley 2004: 24 mb in 3 hrs (track says 23 mb in 4 hrs, 10 mb in 1 hr)Atlantic Hurricane Ike 2008:Track says 56 mb in 18 hours, 24 mb in 3 hrsAtlantic Hurricane Beulah 1967: "6.33/hr drop over a six hour period" (track says 39 mb in 24 hours)

UPDATE: Blog reader Mark pointed out that I forgot about Hurricane Linda in 1997, even though I wrote a "blog" about her then! She was an incredible storm not only from an intensification point of view (she went from Cat 1 to Cat 4 in 18 hours, see below) but from her highest wind speeds (185 mph gusting to 220 mph!) Here were her pressure stats from the Unisys Track:

- 25 mb in 6 hrs - 70 mb in 18 hrs. - 80 mb in 24 hrs. - 94 mb in 36 hrs.

Those larger numbers blow Jimena away -- though Linda's 25 mb in 6 hrs is not a lot more than Jimena's 22 mb. Based on this, I'm greying out the original paragraph below which is no longer needed.

Here's what Category 4 Hurricane Jimena looked like last night on the Navy Satellite images:

NAVY 4-PANEL SATELLITE; SEE ALSO NAVY VISIBLE | WATER VAPOR

THIS PARAGRAPH SUPERCEDED ABOVE: From the Eastern Pacific, data on rapid intensification is harder to come by. WikiPedia mentions Hurricane Felicia from earlier this year, which rapidly strengthened 15 mb in 6 hours, 25 mb in 12 hours, but only 30 mb during any 24-hour period according to the track; this was the only impressive one I could find for the Eastern Pacific. Jimena's best as I calculate it is 42 mb in 26 hours, and 22 mb in 6 hours, so she winds. It's possible she has exhibited the most rapid intensification in the history of the basin, but it depends on how you measure it and there are a lot of undocumented storms out there. If you know of other storms, leave me a Comment.

Most models believe she will affect the Baja Peninsula, but none believe she will become a Category 5 storm before getting there. You can track Jimena with models, as well as the government forecast and our exclusive AccuWeather.com EyePath, on our Hurricane Center.

Report a Typo