Hurricane Odile came ashore over Cabo San Lucas on Sunday night as the strongest storm on record to strike the Baja Peninsula. The storm was a Category 3 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson hurricane wind scale when it made landfall, and it's becoming increasingly clear that Cabo, a popular tourist destination, sustained major damage.
As daylight set in on Monday, images emerged that showed the scope of the destruction, particularly at coastal resorts, which experienced the full force of the wind as well as the towering waves. The storm tied with Hurricane Oliva of 1967 as the strongest storm to strike the Baja Peninsula.
As of Monday afternoon, the storm was crawling up the Baja Peninsula, with its most dangerous eastern quadrant -- where the storm's winds are strongest and waves are highest -- affecting the entire area in a worst-case storm track scenario. The storm's wind field is large enough that tropical storm and hurricane force winds are going to affect the whole peninsula from south to north on Monday and into the evening, even though the storm is weakening.
Aquí evaluando daños. No tenemos luz,ni agua corriente y estamos aislados en el hotel pic.twitter.com/W82avDELf7— Marian Castro (@mariancasfer) September 15, 2014
The storm came ashore with a minimum central air pressure of 922 millibars. In general, the lower the air pressure, the stronger the storm. In this case, the storm had an air pressure equal to Category 5 Hurricane Andrew when that storm hit South Florida in 1992.
Storm chaser Josh Morgerman of iCyclone wrote on Facebook that the storm was extremely violent in the Cabo San Lucas area. Morgerman, who experienced Category 5 Super Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines in 2013, said Hurricane Odile was "one of the worst cyclones" he had ever been in.
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Amazing - miles inland too! (h/t @Sean_Breslin RT @jimmyverduzco (translated) Cabo San Lucas airport after #Odile pic.twitter.com/oQJfxPFc9Y— Jacob Wycoff (@4cast4you) September 15, 2014
@lopezdoriga así lucen los hoteles en Los Cabos... #Odile #HuracanOdile pic.twitter.com/WcYKpz7nfo— Carmen ✌ (@Mariannavieyra) September 15, 2014
While the storm is predicted to weaken as it moves slowly northwest, the danger is far from over -- and won't be confined to Mexico, either. In fact, forecasters are concerned that winds in the mid and upper levels of the atmosphere will pick up moisture from the hurricane as well as another weather system lurking off the California coast, carry it across the Southwest U.S., and dump it on Arizona, Nevada and New Mexico.
These areas experienced deadly flash flooding last week, with Phoenix experiencing its wettest calendar day on record on Sept. 8 after moisture from former Hurricane Norbert reached the area.