Hurricane Jimena heads for Mexico

Hurricane Jimena is moving toward Mexico's Baja California peninsula, prompting thousands of residents to leave the area.

Jimena's winds have now strengthened to 250km/h, just below the threshold of a Category Five storm.

Category Five hurricanes are the top of the Saffir-Simpson intensity scale and can be devastating if they hit land.

Much of Baja California is sparsely populated desert and mountains, with Los Cabos the most developed area.

Mexico has issued a hurricane warning for the area and has issued predictions for significant coastal flooding.

A major oil producer, Mexico has no oil installations in the Pacific but ports in the area have started closing due to Jimena, which formed last weekend.

Jimena is currently located about 300km south of Cabo San Lucas and moving northwest, roughly parallel to the Mexican coastline, at 19km/h.

Hurricane force winds extend outward up to 75km from its centre.

It is expected that the storm will hit the Los Cabos area today and move inland on Wednesday, dumping 13 to 25cm of rain on southern Baja California.

The port of Cabo San Lucas was shut and a line of trailers formed as yachts, water taxis and glass-bottomed tourist boats were removed from the water for safety reasons.

Civil protection authorities have opened emergency shelters in schools for the area's poorest residents, but few have left so far.

Jimena is the second hurricane of the 2009 eastern Pacific season to brush close to Mexico after Andres pounded the coast in June and swept a fisherman to his death in Acapulco.