Hurricane Kiko (1989)

Hurricane Kiko

Category 3 major hurricane (SSHWS/NWS)
Hurricane Kiko at peak intensity near landfall
Formed	August 25, 1989
Dissipated	August 29, 1989
Highest winds	1-minute sustained: 120 mph (195 km/h)
Lowest pressure	955 mbar (hPa); 28.2 inHg
Fatalities	None reported
Areas affected	Baja California Sur and Western Mexico
Part of the 1989 Pacific hurricane season

Hurricane Kiko was one of the strongest tropical cyclones to have hit the eastern coast of Mexico's Baja California peninsula during recorded history. The eleventh named storm of the 1989 Pacific hurricane season, Kiko formed out of a large mesoscale convective system on August 25. Slowly tracking northwestward, the storm rapidly intensified into a hurricane early the next day. Strengthening continued until early August 27, when Kiko reached its peak intensity with winds of 120 mph (195 km/h). The storm turned west at this time, and at around 0600 UTC, the storm made landfall near Punta Arena at the southern tip of Baja California Sur. The hurricane rapidly weakened into a tropical storm later that day and further into a tropical depression by August 28, shortly after entering the Pacific Ocean. The depression persisted for another day while tracking southward, before being absorbed by nearby Tropical Storm Lorena. Though Kiko made landfall as a Category 3 hurricane, its impact was relatively minor. Press reports indicated that 20 homes were destroyed and numerous highways were flooded by torrential rains.

Unlike most other eastern Pacific hurricanes between 1988 and 1990 that began as tropical waves off the western coast of Africa, Hurricane Kiko developed out of a large-scale mesoscale convective system on August 23 on the coast of Sonora. The system slowly tracked southward into the Gulf of California and became increasingly organized. Shower and thunderstorm activity was present around an area of low pressure the following day; however, insufficient reports from the region hindered the National Hurricane Center's (NHC) forecasting ability. By August 25, satellite intensity estimates, using the Dvorak technique, indicated that the low had developed into a tropical depression around 1200 UTC, while the storm was located about 115 miles (185 kilometers) south of Mazatlán, Sinaloa. Operationally, the system was not declared a tropical depression; instead it was immediately declared Tropical Storm Kiko with winds of 40 mph (65 km/h). Located within an area with little or no steering current, and situated over warm waters and underneath an upper-level low, conditions were near perfect for rapid intensification, despite the proximity to land. A general northwestward drift was anticipated, and the NHC forecast the storm to reach hurricane intensity within 24 hours.