An Eastern Pacific Hurricane is a
hurricane that occurs in the Eastern Pacific ocean. While the Eastern Pacific tends to spin out just as many hurricanes as the
Atlantic,the hurricanes there generally receive less attention then the Atlantic variety. There are two main reasons for this: one is that the general track of a hurricane in the
Northern Hemisphere tends to be north and west. Thus, hurricanes that form in the Eastern Pacific tend to blow out into the ocean, presenting no threat to land. Although a hurricane might head directly north, it usually has not spent much time forming, and thus hits the coast of Mexico as a relatively weak storm. The second reason why Eastern Pacific hurricanes are usually not a threat is that the waters of the Eastern Pacific are much cooler, on average, than the waters of the Atlantic. Although the temperatures off the coast of Mexico and Central America are just as hot as temperatures in the
Caribbean or
Gulf of Mexico, but further north those waters are quickly and greatly cooled by the
Alaska Current, so that the waters off of Southern California are as cool as the waters off of
New England: thus, hurricanes entering this area can no longer sustain
convection. Occasionally an Eastern Pacific hurricane will bring floods and wind to the Pacific coast of the United States, but nothing more.
For these reasons, Eastern Pacific hurricanes are mostly a matter of concern for meteorologists or people involved in nautical pursuits, but they are generally not as apocalyptic as hurricanes in the Atlantic can be.