Adrian becomes 1st East Pac hurricane - grows fast

Graphic courtesy of Weather Underground


The storm that was tropical depression 1E just a day ago has now grown into a major Category 4 hurricane. Hurricane Adrian became a named storm early Wednesday and grew to hurricane strength by the end of the day. Since then the storm has continued to rapidly intensify reaching sustained windspeeds of 140 MPH with gusts of 165 MPH.

Adrian Becomes Category 4 Hurricane(AccuWeather)

Tropical Storm Adrian, the first hurricane of 2011, is now a Category 4 storm in the eastern Pacific.

Adrian was upgraded to a hurricane Wednesday evening and was upgraded to Category 4 status at 4 p.m. PDT on Thursday.

After organizing into the first tropical depression of the 2011 Eastern Pacific Hurricane Season on Tuesday morning, rapid strengthening continued throughout the day. The depression was named Tropical Storm Adrian on Tuesday.

Adrian is forecast to strengthen further before steadily weakening as it enters cooler waters. Adrian's path is to the west northwest essentially parallel to the Mexican coast and is not expected to affect land.