Kenneth (2011)

A tropical depression formed about 400 nautical miles south of Acapulco, Mexico, around 1800 UTC on 19 November 2011 from a disturbance that crossed Central America. The system moved generally westward and became Tropical Storm Kenneth on 20 November. Kenneth rapidly intensified over warm waters and became a hurricane on 21 November, reached major hurricane strength on 22 November, then weakened to a tropical storm by 23 November and degenerated into a remnant low by 25–26 November while well over the open eastern North Pacific. The storm remained over open water for its entire life and tracked roughly westward, passing south-southwest of Socorro and Clarion islands.

Kenneth produced no landfalls. It stayed far from the Mexican coast and other populated shorelines throughout its lifetime, so no coastal points recorded the cyclone as a direct hitting storm.

The hurricane’s peak intensity was estimated at 125 knots (about 144 mph) with a minimum central pressure of 940 mb at 1200 UTC 22 November 2011. At peak it was a Category 4 storm on the Saffir–Simpson scale. The peak intensity lasted a little more than six hours before a rapid weakening trend began.

Because Kenneth stayed over the open ocean, there were no reports of storm surge impacts on coastal communities. Rainfall totals and coastal surge measurements at named cities or counties were not reported in association with Kenneth; only ship observations recorded tropical-storm-force winds and standard pressures while the cyclone was offshore.

There were no reported deaths or damage linked to Kenneth. The regions most exposed to the storm’s conditions were open-ocean shipping areas south of Socorro and near Clarion Island, where ships reported winds of around 34–40 kt at times.

Noteworthy aspects include that Kenneth was an unusually late and compact major hurricane for the eastern North Pacific: it is the latest-forming major hurricane in that basin during the satellite era and the only major hurricane on record in November for the region. Forecasts of the storm’s track were generally better than average, but its rapid intensification and subsequent rapid weakening were difficult to predict and led to larger-than-normal intensity forecast errors.