It took 36 hours for a small tropical storm to develop into the “monster” Hurricane Jova on Thursday, threatening island states in the Pacific Ocean.
As of 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, Hurricane Jova was a Category 4 “monster” storm, reaching wind speeds up to 130 mph throughout the eastern Pacific, according to amateur meteorologist Colin McCarthy. By 11 p.m. the same night, Jova officially gained enough strength and speed to be reclassified as a Cat. 5 hurricane, the strongest so in 2023 for the western hemisphere, McCarthy said in an update.
The system sat roughly 535 miles south-southwest of Baja California, and was taking a north-westerly trajectory, moving 16 mph over the Pacific as of Thursday morning, Hawaii News Now reported. Forecasters are hopeful Jova won’t hit much in terms of landmass, as there should be enough time for the system to dissipate over the ocean before reaching the shores of Hawaii.
Hurricane #Jova is officially a Category 5 storm as prolific inner core lightning bursts continue unabated into nightfall.
The strongest hurricane so far in 2023 in the Western Hemisphere. pic.twitter.com/9CajIVq6yj
— Colin McCarthy (@US_Stormwatch) September 7, 2023
If it does make landfall, it’ll hopefully be in the form of a small post-tropical storm, the outlet continued. Under its current forecast, Jova will likely hit an area of cooler sea temperatures, which will dampen its power on Thursday and through the following weekend. (RELATED: Fake Videos From California’s Tropical Storm Go Viral Online)
On the other side of the country, Hurricane Lee is expected to rapidly intensify due to contrasting ocean and air temperatures over the Atlantic, CNN reported. By early Thursday, Lee was just a Cat. 1 storm, but he’s expected to strengthen into a Cat. 5 as it hits the Caribbean Islands.