Hurricane Odile has slammed ashore along the southernmost tip of Baja California Sur late last night near the resort town of Cabo San Lucas as the strongest in recorded history. Estimated winds at landfall where reportedly around 125 mph which blew doors out of their frames.
Source: weather.com
The hurricane continues to push north, pumping tremendous amounts of rich tropical moisture with it. Some sources report rainfall rates of between 8-10 inches PER HOUR with some communities possibly eyeing a year’s worth of rain within 1-2 hours. Annual average rainfall in this typically arid region is between just 8-12 inches.
Credit: AFP/via BBC
Battering waves as well as hurricane-force wind is likely to cause major damage and even complete structural failure along this exposed piece of land.
Astonishing Rainfall Reports
According to Meteorologist Cory Mottice (based at NWS Flagstaff), San Jose Del Cabo is reporting 20.74 inches of rain already with an hourly total of 11.11 inches. The world record for a 1-hour rain total is 12″.
Check out this rare 24-hour QPF rainfall forecast.
Rainfall could be catastrophic within the mountains where the orographic effect means greater rain totals than at the coast. Expect deadly flash flooding and mudslides which, if Norbert is anything to go by just a week ago today, then the Southwest US may want to brace for more record flooding in the coming days.
On this day last week, the remnants of Hurricane Norbert brought record, devastating rain and flooding to the Southwest. The same could happen with Odile.
Phoenix flooding on this day last week!
Credit: AZ Central
Only one other hurricane has made a ‘major’ landfall on the Baja peninsula and that was Hurricane Kiko back in 1989 as a 120 mph near La Paz on the Gulf of California side of the peninsula (according to wunderground.com). Pressure within Odile was estimated to be as low as 922mb yesterday afternoon as the powerful storm neared land. That pressure was measured by a hurricane hunter reconnaissance aircraft and only two other eastern Pacific Hurricanes have been measured with a pressure lower.
http://youtu.be/wf4jQi4lABU
The hurricane underwent rapid intensification Saturday night going from a Cat 1 to Cat 4 within 24 hours, likely helped by abnormally warm water beneath that’s been surrounding the southern Peninsula and down Mexico’s West Coast all summer. El Nino year’s tend to see an increase in eastern Pacific hurricane activity. Of course, Norbert also intensified to Cat 4 intensity over the same abnormally warm water pool and made a close call with the Baja within the last 10 days.
Water surrounding the Baja was 3-5C above normal on September 1 before Norbert and Odile. Water should cool.
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