September 16, 2014 - Hurricane Odile (15E) off Mexico

Hurricane Odile (15E) off Mexico

At about 10:45 p.m. Mountain Daylight Time (MDT) on September 14, 2014, Hurricane Odile made landfall as a Category 3 storm near Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. According to the U.S. National Hurricane Center (NHC), Odile arrived with wind speeds of 127 mph (204 km/h) The storm tied Olivia (1967) as the strongest hurricane to make landfall in the state of Baja California Sur in the satellite era.

The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite acquired this true-color image of the storm at about noon MDT on September 14, when it was still southeast of the Baja California peninsula. Unisys Weather reported that the Category 4 storm had maximum sustained wind speeds of 132 mph (213 km/h) at the time.

Odile had weakened to a Category 2 hurricane by 6 a.m. MDT on September 15. AT 3:00 pm MDT on that same day the NHC reported that Odile was weakening as it moved inland over the southern California peninsula. Maximum sustained winds had reduced to 80 mph (130 km/h), making it a Category 1 hurricane. The center of the hurricane remained well defined, with the strongest winds affecting only very small area. Odile is expected to weaken to a tropical storm by the morning of September 16 and become a depression with 48 hours, although the mountainous terrain of the Baja peninsula could cause more rapid weakening.

Odile is moving slowly to the north, and is pulling moist air from over the Pacific Ocean northward along with the storm’s circulation. While wind speeds are dropping rapidly, the high moisture is forecast to result in locally heavy rains and possible flooding over portions of the southwestern United States.

Image Facts
Satellite: Terra
Date Acquired: 9/14/2014
Resolutions: 1km ( B), 500m ( B), 250m ( B)
Bands Used: 1,4,3
Image Credit: Jeff Schmaltz, MODIS Land Rapid Response Team, NASA GSFC