Hurricane Adrian was an early season hurricane which took an unusual southwest to northeast track, bringing it closer to El Salvador than any other hurricane since reliable records began in 1949. The first storm of the 2005 Pacific hurricane season, Adrian developed on May 17, just two days after the official start of the season, several hundred miles south-southeast of Mexico. Tracking in an atypical northwestward direction, the storm gradually intensified. On May 19, the storm reached its peak strength as a minimal hurricane with winds of 80 mph (130 km/h). Not long after reaching this intensity, the storm abruptly weakened. By the morning of May 20, the system had weakened to a minimal tropical storm and turned due west. Later that day, the storm made landfall along the Gulf of Fonseca in Honduras before dissipating several hours later. Meteorological history Hurricane Adrian originated from a tropical wave that moved off the western coast of Africa, near the Cape Verde Islands in early May 2005. Between May 10 and 14, several areas of disturbed weather moved across Central America, contributing to the development of a broad area of low pressure about 520 mi (835 km) south-southeast of Acapulco, Mexico. On May 15, another tropical wave interacted with the low, resulting in the consolidation of the system. The following day, the developing low was nearly stationary as convection increased. Around 11:00 am PDT (1800 UTC) on May 17, the National Hurricane Center (NHC) estimated that the system developed into a tropical depression, the first of the 2005 Pacific hurricane season. Upon forming, the depression was situated just south of 10°N, making it the 40th known tropical cyclone to do so since 1949. Unlike most storms in the eastern Pacific, Tropical Depression One-E tracked towards the northwest in response to a trough over Mexico. Tropical cyclone forecast models at the time anticipated intensification as conditions ahead of the system favored tropical cyclone development. Initially, the system moved at a slow pace of ; however this later increased to . Within six hours of being declared a depression, the cyclone was classified as Tropical Storm Adrian. Over the following days, gradual strengthening took place as Adrian moved through a region of moderate wind shear. By May 18, deep convection consolidated around the center of circulation and feeder bands developed along the periphery of the storm. Warm waters, around , ahead of the storm