Dangerous Hurricane Jimena Blasts Toward Baja California

The National Hurricane Center in Miami warns, "Jimena is a Category 4 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson scale and very near the threshold of Category five status."

Category 5, the highest category of threat, applies to storms with wind speeds of more than 156 miles per hour and a storm surge of more than 18 feet.

Hurricane Jimena wind speed probabilities through September 5 based on the official National Hurricane Center track, intensity, and wind radii forecasts (Image courtesy NHC)

The Air Force Reserve hurricane hunters have just flown their plane through Jimena and found that the hurricane was "stronger" and "larger" than previously estimated, the Hurricane Center said.

A gradual increase in forward speed and a turn toward the north-northwest is expected over the next two days. Hurricane force winds extend outward from the eye of the storm up to 45 miles and tropical storm force winds extend outward up to 140 miles. Clouds from the storm stretch across western Mexico.

"Some fluctuations in strength are likely during the next day or so, but Jimena is expected to remain a major hurricane until landfall," the Hurricane Center said.

This afternoon, the storm is about 305 miles south-southeast of Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, the resort area at the southern tip of the peninsula.

The Mexican government has declared a hurricane warning for the southern part of the Baja California peninsula from Bahia Magdalena southward on the west coast.

Jimena is blowing toward the northwest near 10 mph and is expected to hit the southern portion of the Baja California peninsula Tuesday morning.

Mexican officials say they expect the storm to strike the municipalities of the Cabos and La Paz on Tuesday and on Wednesday move to the municipalities of Comondú, Loreto and Mulegé.

Pre-hurricane rain falls on a resort in Cabo San Lucas. August 31, 2009. (Webcam image courtesy Villa del Arco)

As some residents and tourists stock up on gas and food and prepare to sit out the storm, the State System of Civil defense is preparing to evacuate about 10,000 families in high risk flood zones and is stocking equipment and food in the 159 shelters on the peninsula.

Emergency and government officials headed by the Secretary General of Government Luis Arming Diaz met this morning and will meet again this evening to evaluate the situation and plan preventive measures. Schools at all levels in the peninsula's five threatened municipalities have been ordered to close until the storm has passed.

"It is better to make preparations to act immediately to safeguard the security of the sudcalifornianos,” said Diaz.

The meeting of the OECD's Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information which was to have taken place in Los Cabos on Tuesday and Wednesday has been moved to Mexico City's Sheraton Centro Historico Hotel because of the threat of severe damage posed by the hurricane.

The Forum brings together representatives of almost 100 governments under the chairmanship of Mexican Finance Minister Agustin Carstens. Delegates will decide next steps in a global campaign to improve transparency and exchange of banking and ownership information for tax purposes.

Jimena is expected to drop up to 10 inches of rain over the southern half of the Baja California peninsula and portions of western Mexico over the next 48 hours, with up to 15 inches forecast for some places.

A storm surge with large and dangerous battering waves is predicted to produce coastal flooding along the peninsula.

At the same time, Tropical Storm Kevin is following Jimena towards southern Baja California, but this storm is expected to weaken to a tropical depression later today.

Copyright Environment News Service, ENS, 2009. All rights reserved.