Hurricane Naomi (1968)

Hurricane Naomi

Category 1 hurricane (SSHWS/NWS)
Tropical Storm Naomi while undergoing rapid intensification on September 11, 1968 while off the coast of Mexico. This picture was taken shortly after the system was given a name.
Formed	September 9, 1968
Dissipated	September 13, 1968
Highest winds	1-minute sustained: 85 mph (140 km/h)
Lowest pressure	992 mbar (hPa); 29.29 inHg
Fatalities	4 direct
Damage	≥ $16 million (1968 USD)
Areas affected	Mexico, Texas
Part of the 1968 Pacific hurricane season

Hurricane Naomi was a short-lived Category 1 hurricane that made landfall in Mexico's Pacific coast during the 1968 Pacific hurricane season. After rapidly intensifying before its landfall in Sinaloa, Naomi caused rainfall throughout northern Mexico and the U.S. state of Texas in association with a frontal system, with the highest measurement occurring in Corpus Christi. Four people perished in Mexico due to Naomi's effects with ten more missing, all in Sinaloa. The only reported injury in Texas due to the remnants was a factory worker who was injured when the roof of the plant they were working in collapsed due to rainfall.

Naomi was the seventeenth tropical depression, fourteenth tropical storm and the fourth hurricane of the 1968 Pacific hurricane season. Its precipitation on the Mexican Altiplano briefly threatened the unfinished Lázaro Cárdenas dam on the Nazas River. If the dam failed, the twin cities of Gómez Palacio, Durango, and Torreón, Coahuila, would have been inundated. On the other hand, releasing water from the dam would have saved Torreón by submerging Gómez Palacio with the dam's runoff. From help with satellite imagery, the authorities decided to keep the dam closed—risking its possible failure—saving both towns.

The disturbance that developed into Hurricane Naomi was reported in the Intertropical Convergence Zone on September 8 at 12 °N, 98 °W. At that time, a ship called the Avisfaith reported winds to the south-southwest of force 7 on the Beaufort Scale 30 mi (48 km) south of this position, the equivalent of a strong tropical depression on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale. On September 9, six more ships reported winds of 35 mph (56 km/h) from the system, which was at 13°N, 101°W at the time, and the system was given depression status on the same day. Later that day, satellite pictures clearly showed the vortex and center of the developing cyclone, and on September 10, the first report of tropical storm force winds were reported south of the low by the ship Builder, which showed winds of 40 mph (64 km/h). The depression continued to develop at a rapid pace, with large feeder bands which helped to absorb moisture to strengthen the cyclone extending from the center, which was becoming better defined. One of the feeder bands developed near Manzanillo, Colima, which reported winds of 45 mph (72 km/h) from the band prior to daybreak. Towards the end of the day, the Allison Lykes reported 60 mph (97 km/h) winds from the cyclone and, early on September 11, sufficient evidence that the depression had reached tropical storm status resulted in the cyclone being upgraded and named "Naomi".