Hurricane Jimena has dissipated. Once a Category 4 Storm, Jimena raked the Pacific coast of Baja Sur from Monday night until Wednesday when it made land fall just north of Magdelena Bay.

Surprisingly to many Jimena passed over the Magdalena Bay area as just a Category 2 storm, made landfall as a Category 1 and emerged in the Sea of Cortez as just a Tropical Storm.Some Baja residents reported winds speeds in excess of these results, but the unfortunatly, local geography and altitude can greatly affect the impact and wind velocities of the storm. Actual storm intensity is measured very accurately from space and is based on many factors including barometric pressure and total net wind speeds. Had Jimena actually been a major hurricane at the time of landfall resulting damage could have been even greater. (see graphic right)

The storm crossed the Baja peninsula delivering up to 25" of rain. Puerto San Carlos, Constitucion, Loreto and Mulege were all hit very hard by the storm. We have readers reports that most of the fishing fleet anchored in San Carlos was driven ashore. We hope to have more information from our readers and images from the area soon.

Tuesday night the storm delivered high winds and rain to the Pacific coastal areas of Baja Sur and Cabo San Lucas. Here in La Paz the results were barely tropical storm intensity with peak winds this morning of 45kts and less than 2" of rain. Thursday morning business is returning to normal in both Cabo San Lucas and La Paz. Damage was minimal. The brunt of the storm was received in the Puerto San Carlos to Constitucion area of Comondu.

History:

Tropical Depression 13E formed on the evening of 8/28 from a large area of disturbed weather having been stimulated by a tropical wave. TD13E was upgraded to Tropical Storm Jimena at 3AM MDT on 8/29. Build rapidly, Jimena became a Category 1 Hurricane at 9AM, six hours later. Jimena became a Category 2 Hurricane on the afternoon of 08/29. Jimena became a Major Hurricane during the night of 08/30 and was upgraded to Category 4 in the 9AM release on 8/30. Hurricane Watches were issued for much of the tip of Baja California Sur at 9PM on 8/30. Jimena was downgraded to a Category 3 storm at 3PM on 09/01. Jimena made landfall on Baja just north of Magdalena Bay on the morning of 9/2. Jimena was downgraded to a Category 2 over land on the Baja peninsula at 3PM MDT on 9/2. Jimena was downgraded to a Tropical Storm at 3AM on 9/3. Jimena was downgraded to a Tropical Depression on the early morning of 9/3.