Hurricane Nora (1997)

Hurricane Nora

Nora shortly after peak intensity on September 21
Meteorological history
Formed	September 16, 1997
Dissipated	September 26, 1997
Category 4 major hurricane
1-minute sustained (SSHWS/NWS)
Highest winds	130 mph (215 km/h)
Lowest pressure	950 mbar (hPa); 28.05 inHg
Overall effects
Fatalities	6
Damage	$155 million (1997 USD)
Areas affected	Baja California, Western United States
IBTrACS
Part of the 1997 Pacific hurricane season

Hurricane Nora was the first tropical cyclone to enter the Continental United States from the Pacific Ocean since Hurricane Lester in 1992. Nora was the fourteenth named tropical cyclone and the seventh hurricane of the 1997 Pacific hurricane season. The September storm formed off the Pacific coast of Mexico, and aided by waters warmed by the 1997–98 El Niño event, eventually peaked at Category 4 intensity on the Saffir–Simpson hurricane scale.

Nora took an unusual path, making landfall twice as a hurricane in the Baja California Peninsula. Weakening quickly after landfall, it lashed the Southwestern United States with tropical storm-force winds, torrential rain, and flooding before becoming a remnant low. The storm was blamed for two direct casualties in Mexico, as well as substantial beach erosion on the Mexican coast, flash flooding in Baja California, and record precipitation in Arizona. It persisted far inland and eventually dissipated near the Arizona–Nevada border.

The system that was to become Hurricane Nora was likely related to a tropical wave, that had moved off the coast of Africa at the end of August 1997 and entered the Pacific Ocean during September 12. After entering the Pacific Ocean, the wave encountered a favourable environment for tropical cyclogenesis, which caused the system to become better organised and develop into Tropical Storm Nora on September 16. Over the next couple of days, the system continued to become better organised as it slowly moved north-westwards over the Pacific Ocean away from southwestern Mexico and intensified into a Category 2 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson hurricane wind scale during September 18. The steering currents subsequently became weak or balanced over the hurricane which caused the system to become near-stationary and weaken into a Category 1 hurricane.

Nora impacted the majority of Mexico's Pacific-facing coasts including the states of Baja California, Colima, Guerrero, Jalisco, Michoacán, Nayarit, Oaxaca, Sinaloa and Sonora.