Mexico City  - Hurricane Jimena gained in intensity Monday as it raced towards the western Mexican peninsula of Baja California, where it was expected to make landfall within 24 hours.

The Miami-based National Hurricane Centre (NHC) said Jimena had winds of 250 kilometres per hour and was nearing category five on the Saffir-Simpson scale, the highest level of hurricane. Mexican authorities already had classified the storm as a category five.

Mexican authorities also issued an alert for the southern tip of the peninsula, from western Bahia Magdalena to eastern San Evaristo, including the renowned resort area of Los Cabos. Jimena was forecast to make landfall on Tuesday evening crossing the Baja peninsula from south to north.

The centre of Jimena was 450 kilometres south-southeast of Cabo San Lucas on Monday evening. The hurricane was moving northwest at 17 kilometres per hour.

According to NHC, storm surges along with large and dangerous battering waves were to produce "significant coastal flooding along the Baja California peninsula."

Rain was affecting the area, and also other coastal Mexican states like Jalisco, Colima, Nayarit and Sinaloa, according to reports from Mexico's Water Commission, on which the National Meteorological Service depends. The authorities were also watching developments on the coasts of Guerrero and Michoacan. (dpa)