 At 1800 UTC on August 1 , an unidentified ship roughly 950 mi ( 1 @,@ 550 km ) southeast of Hilo , Hawaii reported 70 mph ( 110 km / h ) winds within a storm , prompting the JTWC to initiate advisories on Tropical Storm Dot . Despite an apparent correlation between Dot and the preceding unnamed tropical cyclone , the lack of ship reports between July 27 and August 1 prevented the agency from confirming that the two systems were the same . Nonetheless , development upon designation was rapid as the system tracked westward , with reports from the SS Sonoma indicating that Dot had intensified to hurricane strength by August 2 . Rapid intensification continued , and at 0000 UTC on August 3 , reconnaissance aircraft found winds of 150 mph ( 240 km / h ) and a minimum barometric pressure of 952 mbar ( hPa ; 28 @.@ 11 inHg ) , making Dot a Category 4 hurricane on the modern @-@ day Saffir – Simpson hurricane wind scale . Later analysis indicated that these figures constituted the hurricane 's peak intensity . 
 At 1800 UTC on August 1 , an unidentified ship roughly 950 mi ( 1 @,@ 550 km ) southeast of Hilo , Hawaii<a href='been_done' title='1'><mark></mark></a> reported 70 mph ( 110 km / h ) winds within a storm , prompting the JTWC to initiate advisories on Tropical Storm Dot . Despite an apparent correlation between Dot and the preceding unnamed tropical cyclone , the lack of ship reports between July 27 and August 1 prevented the agency from confirming that the two systems <a href='uninflect' title='2'><mark>were</mark></a> the same . Nonetheless , development upon designation was rapid as the system tracked westward , with reports from the SS Sonoma indicating that Dot <a href='been_done' title='3'><mark>had</mark></a> intensified to hurricane strength by August 2 . Rapid intensification continued , and at 0000 UTC on August 3 , reconnaissance aircraft found winds of 150 mph ( 240 km / h ) and a minimum barometric pressure of 952 mbar ( hPa ; 28 @.@ 11 inHg ) , making Dot a Category 4 hurricane on the modern @-@ day Saffir – Simpson hurricane wind scale . Later analysis indicated that these figures constituted the hurricane <a href='null_genetive' title='4'><mark>'s</mark></a>peak intensity . 
At 1800 UTC on August 1 , an unidentified ship roughly 950 mi ( 1 @,@ 550 km ) southeast of Hilo , Hawaii done reported 70 mph ( 110 km / h ) winds within a storm , prompting da JTWC to initiate advisories on Tropical Storm Dot . Despite an apparent correlation between Dot and tdapreceding unnamed tropical cyclone , the lack of ship reports between July 27 and August 1 prevented thdagency from confirming that thedao systems was the dae . Nonetheless , development upon designation was rapid as the system tracked westward , with reports from the SS Sonoma indicating that Dot done intensified to hurricane strength by August 2 . Rapid intensification continued , and at 0000 UTC on August 3 , reconnaissance aircraft found winds of 150 mph ( 240 km / h ) and a minimum barometric pressure of 952 mbar ( hPa ; 28 @.@ 11 inHg ) , makin Dot a Category 4 hurricane on the modern @-@ day Saffir – Simpson hurricane wind scale . Later analysis indicated that these figures constituted the hdaicane  peak intensity .