List of Category 5 Pacific Hurricanes - Landfalls

Landfalls

Of all of the Category 5 Pacific hurricanes, the only ones to make landfall at any intensity were the 1959 Mexico hurricane, Hurricane Kenna, and Hurricane Rick. The 1959 hurricane was the only one to make landfall as a Category 5, Kenna had weakened to a Category 4 at the time of its landfall, and Rick was a tropical storm at its landfall. The Mexico Hurricane and Kenna are the strongest and third strongest landfalls by east Pacific tropical cyclones, respectively—the second strongest was 1976's Hurricane Madeline, which didn't reach Category 5 strength, but made landfall as a stronger Category 4 storm than Kenna.

In addition to these three systems, Hurricanes John, Linda, and Ioke all threatened land for a while. John and Ioke had minimal impact on Johnston Atoll and John caused heavy surf in Hawaii. Linda was briefly forecast to approach southern California, and it passed close to Socorro Island near peak intensity.

The reason for the lack of landfalls is that tropical cyclones in the northern hemisphere usually travel to the west. In the Atlantic, this sends hurricanes towards North America. In the eastern Pacific, this sends tropical cyclones out into the open ocean to dissipate over waters too cool to support them or in environments with high wind shear. Hawaii, the only heavily populated island chain in the eastern Pacific, is protected from most hurricanes by a subtropical ridge and is small enough to avoid being hit simply due to low odds.