Portal:Tropical cyclones/Featured article/List of Category 5 Pacific hurricanes

Hurricane Elida on July 25, 2002

The list of Category 5 Pacific hurricanes shows every Category 5 hurricane on the Saffir–Simpson hurricane scale to form in the Pacific Ocean. A Category 5 hurricane is the most catastrophic hurricane that can form. They are rare in the eastern Pacific Ocean and generally form only once every several years. The climatology of the basin generally has Category 5s occurring in clusters in single years. Fortunately, landfalls by such storms are rare due to the generally westerly path of tropical cyclones in the Northern Hemisphere.

The term "hurricane" is used for tropical cyclones in the Pacific Ocean, north of the equator and east of the International Date Line. Identical phenomena in the north Pacific Ocean west of the date line are called "typhoons" or "supertyphoons". Category 5 supertyphoons generally happen several times per season, so cyclones of that intensity are not exceptional for that region. This therefore excludes storms such as Super Typhoon Paka which formed east of the dateline but didn't reach Category 5 intensity until after crossing the dateline.

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