Up until now, the records set by the stunning 2014 Eastern Pacific hurricane season have been mostly academic. The storms have been strong and numerous, but they’ve been out at sea off the west coast of Mexico, and haven’t caused much damage.
That changed today, however, with Hurricane Odile — a Category 3 monster that slammed Cabo San Luca early Monday morning, only slightly weaker than its peak Category 4 strength. According to the National Hurricane Center, Odile tied a 1967 storm for the distinction of being the “the strongest hurricane to make landfall in the satellite era in the state of Baja California Sur.” Capital Weather Gang’s Jason Samenow adds that Odile’s “size, strength, and track is a worst case scenario for this region.”
At landfall, the storm had maximum sustained winds speeds of 125 miles per hour. It seems likely that it was the strongest storm on record to strike the posh resort of Cabo San Lucas: The aforementioned 1967 storm, Hurricane Olivia, took quite a different route across the Baja peninsula. It did not strengthen to its peak until it was already in the Gulf of California, between Baja and... Read more
