Hurricane Felicia strong Cat 4 storm, but no threat to land

Hurricane Felicia grew into a strong Category 4 storm on Saturday far out in the Pacific, but forecasters listed no threat to land.

The compact hurricane had maximum sustained winds of 145 mph (230 kph) on Saturday, according to the U.S. National Hurricane Center.

It was centered about 1,120 miles (1,800 kilometers) west-southwest of the tip of Mexico’s Baja California Peninsula and was pushing west at 8 mph (13 kph).

The forecast track would have the storm veering a little toward the northwest, then back toward the southwest in coming days, while starting to weaken by Monday and fading later in the week.

Meanwhile, Tropical Depression Seven-E formed closer to Mexico, but forecasters said that storm too was unlikely to pose any threat to land.

It was centered about 425 miles (680 kilometers) south of the Baja Peninsula and was moving to the west-northwest at 17 mph (28 kph) with maximum sustained winds of 35 mph (55 kph).

Hurricane Season 2021

This year, the hurricane season in the Pacific began earlier than ever. Tropical storm Andrés formed on Sunday, May 9, off the coasts of Jalisco and Michoacán, and in doing so it broke a historical record, since never before, since there are records, had a system of that magnitude originated so soon in the northeastern part of this ocean. The previous record had been set by Tropical Storm Adrián, which emerged on May 10, 2017.

In addition, Andrés also anticipated the official start of the hurricane season in the Pacific, which begins each year on May 15 and ends on November 30.

Hurricane Predictions 2021

According to the SMN, the following systems are expected in 2021:

Tropical storms: between 7 and 10.
Strong hurricanes (categories 1 and 2 ): from 3 to 5.
Intense hurricanes (categories 3, 4 or 5): from 4 to 5.

Total: between 14 and 20 tropical cyclones.

The data is in the average collected for this Ocean between 1991 and 2020, which is 15 cyclones.

Names for the Northeast Pacific: Andrés -already used-, Blanca -already used-, Carlos -already used-, Dolores -already used-, Enrique -already used-, Felicia, Guillermo, Hilda, Ignacio, Jimena, Kevin, Linda, Marty, Nora, Olaf, Pamela, Rick, Sandra, Terry, Vivian, Waldo, Xina, York, Zelda.