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Hurricane Amanda Recap: Record-Setting May Hurricane in the Eastern Pacific

Trace of estimated central pressure of Hurricane Amanda from May 22-28, 2014. Amanda's minimum pressure was estimated at 932 millibars on May 25.

Hurricane Amanda remained hundreds of miles off the Mexican Pacific coast, but nevertheless was a newsworthy hurricane.

Dates: May 22-29, 2014

Peak estimated winds: 155 mph (Category 4)

Lowest estimated pressure: 932 millibars

It wasn't because it was the season's first hurricane, despite occurring about a month before the average date upon which the first eastern Pacific hurricane arrives (June 26).

The legacy of Hurricane Amanda will be its peak intensity, in the month of May.

Amanda's estimated maximum sustained winds reached 155 mph on May 25, putting it at the top end of the Category 4 range on the five-category Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale.

Satellite image taken of Hurricane Amanda on May 25, 2014. (NASA/MODIS) — Satellite image of Hurricane Amanda on May 25, 2014. (NASA/MODIS)

This surpassed 2001's Hurricane Adolph, which was previously the eastern Pacific's strongest May hurricane on record.

The strongest Atlantic May hurricane of record was Category 3 Hurricane Able with peak winds of 115 mph off North Carolina's Outer Banks on May 21, 1951.

This followed a period of rapid intensification, during which the central pressure of Amanda was estimated to plunge 57 millibars in 24 hours ending 8 a.m. PDT on May 25. This corresponded to a deepening of estimated maximum sustained winds of 70 knots during that time period.

This was over twice the deepening rate meteorologists consider "rapid intensification", namely, a 30-knot increase over 24 hours.

Given Amanda was no threat to land, there were no surveillance flights by reconnaissance aircraft and, therefore, no direct measurements of Amanda's central pressure. The statistics shown above were estimates based on satellite techniques. It will never be known if Amanda's pressure and surface winds were actually stronger than estimated.

Amanda, the first named storm and first hurricane of the eastern Pacific hurricane season, formed on the afternoon of May 22 as a tropical depression about 635 miles south-southwest of Manzanillo, Mexico.