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.