Tropical Storms Intensify in East Pacific After Weeks of Calm in Atlantic

Accuweather recently forecasted series of hurricanes in the East Pacific as tropical storm intensifies in the region.

After tropical storm Enrique hit the basin for nearly two weeks, its activity restrained in the Gulf of California on June 30, but not for long. Tropical Depression 6-E formed well to the south of Mexico on Wednesday morning which became hurricane Felicia in less than 24hours, making it the second and currently last hurricane that hit East Pacific after Enrique.

Felicia and Hurricane Comparison

Both Enrique and Felicia were declared as hurricanes just within 24 hours of being designated as tropical storms. However, they differ in some way as well.

While Enrique brought heavy rain and strong winds northward of Mexico, officials assume that Felicia has no direct impacts to Mexico other than some effects in the basin. However, it was reported that Felicia already became much stronger than Enrique, peaking at Category 1 strength on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale.

On Friday morning, Felicia reached Category 3 storm with maximum sustained winds of 125 mph. Typically, a major hurricane has maximum sustained winds of 111 mph or higher, but Felicia managed to make itself the first major hurricane of the season in either the Atlantic or East Pacific basins.

The hurricane reached Category 4 status by Friday afternoon and sustained winds strengthened to 130 mph.

"Shipping interests in the area will encounter dangerous seas," said AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Rob Miller.

Slowly But Surely

"Felicia will begin to run into drier air and some slightly cooler waters," says Miller as Felicia is expected to dissipate and start to lose wind intensity early in the week. However, the process of intensity loss could be slower due to direction of the hurricane moving to the west instead of north, keeping Felicia over marginally warm waters.

"If the track is even farther to the south, it may maintain its intensity for longer," AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Alex Sosnowski reported.

Going farther North would have rapidly lose wind intensity of hurricane as the ocean temperature is much lower, exactly like how Enrique dissipated.

As Felicia is just starting to enter the basin, a report from AccuWeather meteorologists said that Tropical Storm Guillermo had also formed on Saturday which is currently under monitor. "As of 3 p.m. MDT on Sunday, Guillermo was 385 miles south-southwest of Baja California, Mexico, moving to the west-northwest at about 14 mph with sustained winds of 60 mph."

"Tropical Storm Guillermo continues to gradually become better organized," said AccuWeather Meteorologist Derek Witt. "The storm will continue to move generally west-northwestward over the next few days."

Fortunately, reports say Guillermo is expected to not lost for long, although it would potentially strengthen earlier this week as it travels through warm ocean waters and light wind shear.

Guillermo is anticipated to stay over the open waters of the Pacific through this week as it travels due west, and might perhaps dip a bit to the south in the later week. AccuWeather meteorologists are predicting 14-18 named storms in the Eastern Pacific this season with six to 10 expected to become hurricanes.