Dangerous Category 4 Odile Threatens Baja; Edouard Becomes a Hurricane

Hurricane Warnings are flying for Mexico's Baja Peninsula as dangerous Category 4 Hurricane Odileapproaches. Odile put on an impressive burst of rapid intensification Saturday night, going from a Category 1 hurricane with 75 mph winds to a Category 4 storm with 135 mph winds in just 24 hours.Satellite loops show that Odile has likely topped out in strength, but the storm has a large area of very intense eyewall thunderstorms and a prominent eye. Odile's heavy rains have mostly remained offshore of Mexico, though an outer spiral band brushed the Southwest coast of Mainland Mexico on Saturday, bringing 0.31" of a rain and a wind gust of 32 mph to Manzanillo. Baja will not be so lucky. The eyewall of Odile is likely to pass over or just to the west of the southern tip of the Baja Peninsula just before midnight PDT Sunday night. The 11 am EDT Sunday NHC Wind Probability Forecast gave Cabo San Lucason the southwestern tip of the Baja Peninsula a 99% chance of seeing tropical storm-force winds of 39+ mph, and a 47% chance of hurricane-force winds. These odds were 98% and 19%, respectively forSan Jose del Cabo, about 30 miles farther to the northeast. Tropical moisture flowing northwards from Odile's circulation is likely to bring heavy rains to Northern Mexico and the Southwest U.S. late this week. An Air Force hurricane hunter aircraft will investigate Odile Sunday afternoon.



The fourth hurricane of the 2014 Atlantic hurricane season is Edouard, which intensified into a Category 1 hurricane with 80 mph winds at 11 am EDT Sunday. Edouard continues chugging to the northwest at 16 mph over the Central Atlantic, and is not a threat to any land areas. Satellite images show that Edouard has a large area of heavy thunderstorms with an intermittent eye. 

In the Western Pacific, Category 1 Typhoon Kalmaegi made landfall over Luzon Island in the Philippines on Sunday as a Category 1 storm with 80 mph winds. Kalmaegi is expected lose strength as it passes over the mountainous terrain of Luzon, then re-intensify as it crosses the South China Sea early this week, before making landfall in China south of Hong Kong on Tuesday.