MIAMI, Aug. 30 (UPI) -- Forecasters in Miami Sunday night posted a hurricane watch for the southern Baja California peninsula as Hurricane Jimena grew stronger in the eastern Pacific.
At 8 p.m. PDT, forecasters said Jimena was about 255 miles south-southwest of Cabo Corrientes, Nexico, and about 445 miles south-southeast of Cabo San Lucas. The storm was moving toward the northwest at almost 7 mph and was expected to pick up speed gradually during the next two days and turn toward the north-northwest.
On its current track, Jimena is expected to approach the southern area of the Baja California peninsula Tuesday.
Maximum sustained winds for the Category 4 hurricane were almost 145 mph with higher gusts and forecasters called Jimena an extremely dangerous hurricane.
"There's a good chance this system could be a Category 5 in the next 24 hours," Dave Roberts, a hurricane specialist with the National Hurricane Center, told CNN.
Jimena is the 10th named storm of the Pacific hurricane season.
