Dangerous Hurricane Jova to hit Unusual Part of Mexico

Oct 10, 2011; 11:33 AM ET

Hurricane Jova is a Category 3 storm in the eastern Pacific bound for the Mexico shore this morning, but it’s hitting an area that hasn’t experienced this kind of storm before in 150+ years of hurricane history. Below is a snapshot of the AccuWeather and NHC forecast tracks as of 8 AM, from our Google Hurricane Tracker. For the latest tracks, read our news story or visit the Jova page on our Hurricane Center.

Hurricanes do sometimes loop around and move eastward or northeastward in the Eastern Pacific, but according to NOAA’s hurricane database, only two hurricanes have made perpendicular landfall (which would deliver the maximum storm surge and winds) within 65 miles of the state of Colima throughout history: Category 1 Hurricane Winfred in 1992 and a hurricane of unknown intensity (but which was a Cat 5 off the coast) that slammed into the area in 1959. Called the “sneak hurricane,” it killed over 1,000 people.