Record-breaking late-season hurricane strengthens to category 4
Hurricane Kenneth was moving west with maximum sustained winds of 145 mph Tuesday morning.
November 22nd, 2011
11:25 AM ET

Record-breaking late-season hurricane strengthens to category 4

Hurricane Kenneth has strengthened to a category 4 storm far from land in the eastern North Pacific Ocean, becoming the strongest late-season hurricane on record in that region, the National Hurricane Center said Tuesday.

Kenneth also is the first major hurricane (category 3 or higher) on record to have formed in the eastern North Pacific so late in the year, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration says.

Kenneth, churning about 750 miles south-southwest of the southern tip of Mexico’s Baja California and heading away from Mexico on Tuesday morning, presents no immediate threat to land. No coastal watches or warnings were in effect.

The hurricane, with maximum sustained winds of 145 mph, was moving west at about 13 mph shortly before 7 a.m. PT, the hurricane center said. Category 4 storms have sustained winds of 131-155 mph.

The storm is expected to weaken and turn to the west-northwest on Wednesday, the hurricane center said.

When Kenneth became a tropical depression on Sunday, it became only the fourth named storm in the eastern North Pacific to have formed after November 18, according to the hurricane center. Before Kenneth, the most recent was Hurricane Winnie, which formed on December 4, 1983.

The eastern Pacific hurricane season runs from May 15 through November 30, with peak activity from July through September, according to NOAA. Hurricane season in the Atlantic Ocean begins June 1 and ends November 30.

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Filed under: Hurricanes • Tropical weather • Weather
soundoff (9 Responses)
  1. BOMBO

    Well, I hope it spins itself out to nothing without hitting populated areas. It'll make a good storm for research though.

    Kenneth is an odd name for a storm. Reminds me of the Monty Python skit about the boxer Ken Clean Air System.

    November 22, 2011 at 12:13 pm | Report abuse |
  2. MRS NELLIE AIR-VENT, MOTHER

    Basically Ken is a very gentle, home-loving person. I remember when one of his stick insects had a knee infection. He stayed up all night rubbing it with germoline and banging its head on the table.

    Oh he was such a pretty baby, always so kind and gentle. He was really considerate to his mother, and not at all the kind of person you'd expect to pulverize their opponent into a bloody mass of flesh and raw bone, spitting teeth and fragments of gum into a ring which had become one man's hell and Ken's glory.

    November 22, 2011 at 12:28 pm | Report abuse |
  3. **cosmicvox *

    @BOMBO, Haahah 😉

    November 22, 2011 at 12:30 pm | Report abuse |
  4. pmk1953

    OOOOOhhh nnnnoooooo, Mr. Bill!! It's the end of the world.:-D

    November 22, 2011 at 1:55 pm | Report abuse |
  5. banasy©

    @Bombo:
    Lmao! John
    Cleese was priceless!

    @pmk1953: Mr. Hands says relax...

    November 22, 2011 at 2:25 pm | Report abuse |
  6. gung hoe

    Please correct me if Iam wrong but isnt storms that form in the pacific typhoons and in the atlantic huricanes?

    November 22, 2011 at 2:48 pm | Report abuse |
  7. pmk1953

    Storm in the eastern Pacific are hurricanes, in the western Pacific, they're typhoons.

    November 22, 2011 at 3:30 pm | Report abuse |
  8. Troy Owen

    Heeeere comes Global Warming, have fun!

    November 22, 2011 at 5:33 pm | Report abuse |
  9. george lewis

    nah its a hurriphoon

    November 22, 2011 at 9:02 pm | Report abuse |
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