Edited to add: Around 8 am this morning Amanda became the strongest May hurricane ever observed in the eastern Pacific with maximum sustained winds estimate at 135 kt/155 mph - however, Amanda did not quite reach Category 5 strength.
Amanda has intensified to a Category 4 hurricane with NHC estimating the maximum sustained winds at 140 mph and the central pressure at 946 mb. Amanda has become the second strongest May hurricane ever observed in the eastern Pacific - strongest was Adolph in 2001. Image above shows IR satellite image at 1230 UTC this morning (Sunday, May 25th), and below is water vapor image at 1300 UTC.
Current NHC forecas (above) intensifies Amanda some during the day today as it begins moving northward; however, the intensity forecasts have not been very accurate with this storm so far. The global models have quite different forecasts for the evolution of moisture associated with Amanda. The ECMWF keeps higher precipitable water (PW) values at fairly low latitudes and then shunts them off to the west around day 6. However, the GFS ensemble continues to have members that forecast Amanda will initiate a GoC surge of moisture northward around day 5, i.e., Thursday to Friday. Confidence is low and careful monitoring is needed.
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