Hurricane Pauline

Hurricane Pauline

Category 4 major hurricane (SSHWS/NWS)
Hurricane Pauline at peak intensity
Formed	October 5, 1997
Dissipated	October 10, 1997
Highest winds	1-minute sustained: 130 mph (215 km/h)
Lowest pressure	948 mbar (hPa); 27.99 inHg
Fatalities	230–500 confirmed
Damage	$447.8 million (1997 USD)
Areas affected	Southwestern Guerrero, Oaxaca
Part of the 1997 Pacific hurricane season

Hurricane Pauline was one of the deadliest Pacific hurricanes to make landfall in Mexico. The sixteenth tropical storm, eighth hurricane, and seventh major hurricane of the 1997 Pacific hurricane season, Pauline developed out of a tropical wave from Africa on September 16, 1997, moving across South America and into the Pacific Ocean. On October 5, the depression intensified into a tropical storm early the next day and by October 7, Pauline had reached hurricane intensity. It initially moved eastward, then turned northwestward and quickly strengthened to reach peak winds of 135 mph (215 km/h). It paralleled the Mexican coastline a short distance offshore before weakening and making landfall near Puerto Angel, on October 9, and dissipated the next day.

Hurricane Pauline produced torrential rainfall along the Mexican coastline, peaking at 32.62 inches (930 mm) in Puente Jula. Intense flooding and mudslides in some of the poorest areas of Mexico killed between 230 and 500 people, making it one of the deadliest Eastern Pacific storms in recorded history. The passage of the hurricane destroyed or damaged tens of thousands of houses, leaving around 300,000 people homeless and causing $447.8 million in damage (1997 USD).

A tropical wave exited the coast of Africa on September 16. It traversed steadily westward, with the southern portion of the wave axis moving across northern South America. On September 26 the wave entered the eastern Pacific Ocean near Panama, and slowly organized. A weak low-level trough extended from the Caribbean Sea to south of Mexico, disrupting the normal flow of westward steering currents. On October 3, the tropical wave developed a distinct area of deep convection, and began to drift eastward to the south of Mexico. Two days later a low-level circulation formed, and midday on October 5 the system developed into Tropical Depression Eighteen-E while located about 250 miles (410 km) south-southwest of Huatulco in the state of Oaxaca.