Ten Fastest Intensifying Storms from Birth – East Pacific

Hurricane Jimena went from a tropical depression to a category one hurricane in twelve hours.  Twelve hours thereafter, Jimena became a category two hurricane.  Another twelve hours later and Jimena was a category three; explosive strengthening.  But Jimena never actually underwent what is called rapid deepening – officially defined as a pressure drop of 42mb in 24 hours.  There was a pressure drop of 41mb between advisory two and advisory seven (August 29, 9:00 UTC to August 30, 9:00 UTC).  But, Jimena had strengthened incredibly fast for a new storm.  So much so that I had wondered was this the fastest on record?  But, while Jimena was certainly in the top ten, it actually wasn’t number one.  So, which storm was?

I broke the data up into three parts:  12 hours, 24 hours and 36 hours.  The criteria was simple:

• what storms saw the greatest wind growth from the first advisory issued to the advisory issued at:
  • 12 hours,
  • 24 hours,
  • 36 hours,
• East Pacific storms only (Atlantic storms will be posted within a couple of days).  This includes 853 systems that were at least tropical storms since 1949, the earliest for which I have records.

Normally for this type of report, I’d prefer to use pressure.  However, not all storms included in this report had pressure readings (very few actually).  Even the ones that did could be questioned.  Wind speeds, however, can be questioned as well since they are estimates.  But these speeds (taken in knots, reported in mph) are based off the National Hurricane Center’s most recent post-track analysis.  In other words, this is as good as it gets.  Also, time is reported in UTC.

What to expect?

I wasn’t quite sure if Jimena would, in fact, be the top storm as far as intensification.  I figured it would be up there.  But, while it’s intensification was impressive, I had seen better.  Just, not from the first advisory.  After doing the analysis, however, I was pretty surprised to see storms had actually developed faster.  Before we get to the results, a special thanks to Rudy Limeback with SQL consulting by r937.com whom largely wrote the analysis program.

12-Hour Analysis

1. Hurricane Patsy – 1959:  Patsy had the first advisory issued on September 6, 1959 and was immediately classified a hurricane with 86mph winds.  Within 12 hours, Patsy had 173mph winds, an increase of 87mph.  There were no pressure readings with any of Patsy’s advisories.
2. Unnamed Hurricane – 1949:  While this storm was nothing spectacular (max winds were 86mph), it grew at the second fastest rate in recorded history – from 29mph winds on September 29, 1949 to 86mph winds the same day.  As with Patsy, there are no pressure readings for this hurricane.
3. Hurricane Dot – 1959:  Dot developed on August 1, 1959 with 70mph winds – a tropical storm.  Twelve hours later, Dot had winds of 100kts or 115mph, a category three hurricane.
4. Hurricane Frank – 2004:  Likely to be considered the most accurate amongst this list due to technological advances, Frank developed on August 23, 2004.  At that time, winds were 35mph.  In addition, pressure was 1005mb.  Later that day, Frank had winds of 65kts or 75mph and a pressure of 990mb.  Certainly nothing to write home about and nothing that would come close to rapid deepening.
5. Hurricane Norma – 1974:  Norma, as with Frank, developed at first with 35mph winds and actually peaked twelve hours later with 75mph winds.  There were no pressure readings with this storm.
6. Hurricane Aletta – 1978:  May 30, 1978, 40mph winds to 75mph winds
7. Hurricane Douglas – 1996:  July 29, 1996, 40mph winds to 75mph winds
8. Hurricane Jimena – 2009:  August 29, 2009, 35mph winds to 70mph winds
9. Hurricane Iva – 1978:  August 11, 1978, 35mph winds to 63mph winds
10. Hurricane Javier – 1986:  August 20, 1986, 35mph winds to 63mph winds

As you can see, there really isn’t anything spectacular outside of the Hurricane Dot.  Any storm could easily fit into the bottom-five, I would think.  Which made me really curious to see the 24-hour span (or, hoping this wasn’t a waste of time ).

24-Hour Analysis

Again, we searched for storms that had intensified the fastest within their first 24 hours.  I expected the list would likely be very similar to the 12-Hour Analysis list.  I was very wrong.

1. Hurricane Jimena – 2009:  Yes, Jimena topped this list (three-way tie) going from the aforementioned 35mph winds to an incredible 104mph within 24 hours.  This also equated to a pressure drop from 1007mb to 970mb – still not officially rapid deepening.  That was a difference of 69mph winds.
2. Hurricane Javier – 1986: from 35mph winds to 104mph winds
3. Hurricane Dot – 1959:  from 69mph to 138mph winds
4. Hurricane Kiko – 1989:  35mph winds to 98mph winds
5. Hurricane Francesca – 1966:  29mph winds to 86mph
6. Hurricane Frank – 2004:  35mph to 86mph
7. Hurricane Bud – 2006: 35mph to 86mph
8. Hurricane Patsy – 1959:  86mph winds to 138mph
9. Hurricane Orlene – 1986:  29mph to 75mph
10. Hurricane Elida – 2002:  35mph winds to 81mph winds.

Out of the two top-ten lists so far, only five continued maintaining some type of intensity growth that still rated the storm above others.  Note that Frnak and Patsy both never gained additional intensity beyond the initial 12-hours but, rather, kept their intensity over the next 24 hour period and still were the fastest growing storms from birth.  Pretty impressive.

36-Hour Analysis

1. Unnamed Hurricane – 1957:  This hurricane saw truly explosive growth over a 36-hour period from 29mph winds to 138mph winds in October, 1957.  That’s a difference of 109mph.
2. Hurricane Elida – 2002:  Elida went from a 35mph tropical depression to a 138mph category four hurricane – similar to the Unnamed storm of 1957.
3. Hurricane Emily – 1973:  Grew from 35mph winds to 127mph winds, a difference of 92mph
4. Hurricane Kiko – 1983:  Call this Kiko #1, this hurricane went from 29mph winds to 115mph winds, a category three hurricane, in 1983.
5. Hurricane Kiko – 1989:  Kiko #2 grew from a 35mph depression to 121mph hurricane, a difference of 86mph – similar to Kiko #1.
6. Hurricane Virgil – 1992:  29mph to 95mph, a difference of 66mph
7. Hurricane Jimena – 2009:  35mph to 115mph, 80mph difference (three-way tie)
8. Hurricane Javier – 1986:  35mph to 115mph
9. Hurricane Hernan – 2002:  35mph to 115mph
10. Hurricane Fefa – 1979: Finally, Fefa went from a 25mph depression to a 90mph category one hurricane for a difference of 65mph.

What is learned?

Hurricane Jimena, which pondered this question originally, did fit the bill for being a rapidly strengthening storm – certainly a rare storm.  Jimena and Hurricane Javier are the only hurricanes to be listed in all three segments.  They’re intensification rates from first classification are truly astounding.  And, though they may not be number one in every segment the fact they are the sole survivors is provides insight to the remarkable feat Jimena went through Sunday.

What else have you picked up from this list?

Keep in mind I’ll try to post Atlantic storms as soon as possible.  There are many more storms and many more advisories so running the reports will take some time.