1994 Pacific hurricane season

El Niño and a busy central Pacific

The current best track counts 22 tropical cyclones east of the Date Line in 1994, with all but two becoming tropical storms, 10 hurricanes and 5 major hurricanes. It credits the above-average season to the El Niño that developed from spring into early autumn. The site archive counts 21 tropical storms because it also includes Tropical Storm Yuri, which formed near the Date Line in late October and carried a western Pacific designation.

Eleven tropical cyclones formed in or entered the central Pacific, between 140 degrees west and the Date Line, far above the long-term average of about four and a record shared with 1992 at the time. Three of the four most intense central Pacific hurricanes on record at the time came from this season.

The best-track accumulated cyclone energy of 185 units leaves out the time Hurricane Li and Hurricane John spent west of the Date Line. The archive's 204.1 includes those stretches of their tropical stages. 1994 was also the last year of an active run that began in 1982; from 1995, Pacific seasons ran mostly below normal until 2014, except for 1997.

Emilia and Gilma in July

The season started quietly with Tropical Storm Aletta on 18 June, followed by Tropical Storm Bud and Hurricane Carlotta, which peaked at 90 kt and brought sustained winds of 39 mph to Socorro Island. Tropical Storm Daniel reached the central Pacific in July, and its remnants dropped up to 5 inches of rain on the Big Island's windward slopes on 15 July.

Hurricane Emilia formed on 16 July and crossed 140 degrees west as a Category 2 hurricane. Its winds rose from 105 mph to 160 mph over the next 48 hours, and an Air Force reconnaissance aircraft measured a central pressure of 926 hPa, then the lowest on record in a central Pacific hurricane. The archive lists its peak at 140 kt on 19 July. Emilia weakened over cooler water and passed about 170 miles from the Big Island on 22 July; swells of 6 to 10 feet reached the Puna and Kaʻū coasts, and the Mauna Kea observatories closed their domes in the wind.

Hurricane Gilma formed southwest of Baja California on 21 July and intensified fast over water near 29°C. It entered the central Pacific on 24 July and peaked soon after at 140 kt and 920 hPa, the lowest pressure of the season in the archive. Gilma held Category 5 strength for about 12 hours, then wind shear tore at it; it passed within 100 miles of Johnston Atoll as a tropical storm on 28 July.

Hurricane John's month at sea

Hurricane John formed south of Mexico on 11 August and wavered at tropical storm strength for more than a week before steady strengthening began on 20 August. It entered the central Pacific as a major hurricane and reached 150 kt and 929 hPa on 23 August, the season's strongest winds in the archive. It passed about 245 miles south of Hawaii and just north of Johnston Atoll on 26 August.

All 1,100 people on Johnston Atoll evacuated ahead of John, and damage there came to $15 million, in 1994 US dollars. John crossed the Date Line on 28 August and became a typhoon, weakened, looped, strengthened again and recrossed into the central Pacific as a hurricane. It became extratropical on 10 September, 31 days after forming, and its remnants later reached Alaska.

John traveled about 13,180 km, the longest distance on record for a tropical cyclone. Its duration also stood as the world record until Cyclone Freddy in 2023.

Li, a depression's floods and Hilo

Hurricane Li began as a depression southwest of Cabo San Lucas on 31 July, fell apart, regenerated south of Hawaii on 8 August and briefly reached hurricane strength at 65 kt just before crossing the Date Line on 12 August. It is one of only eight tropical cyclones to exist in all three North Pacific basins.

The wettest effect on Hawaii came from a system that never reached storm strength. Tropical Depression One-C formed 740 miles southeast of Hilo on 9 August, and its moisture dropped more than 15 inches of rain on the island of Hawaii. Floods closed every major road in Hilo, the worst in 40 years there, destroyed two homes and damaged 214. Damage on the island came to $5 million in 1994 US dollars.

Lane and Olivia in September

Hurricane Kristy became a hurricane after entering the central Pacific and passed about 300 miles south of Hawaii. Hurricane Lane, from the same tropical wave as Atlantic Tropical Depression Five, intensified rapidly under a ridge and peaked at 115 kt and 948 hPa on 6 September.

Hurricane Olivia formed about 720 miles south of Baja California on 22 September and peaked on 25 September at 130 kt and 923 hPa, observed by NOAA research aircraft. It was then the third most intense Pacific hurricane on record and held the lowest pressure of any Category 4 in the basin. Its outflow sheared Tropical Storm Paul apart nearby.

Rosa's landfall and the Texas floods

Hurricane Rosa formed on 8 October and crept along for days before a trough steered it north and northeast. It strengthened quickly and peaked at 90 kt on 14 October, just before landfall near La Concepción that morning, making it the only named storm of 1994 to reach land. Mexico posted a hurricane warning from Culiacán to Cabo Corrientes that day.

Four people drowned, two in Nayarit and two in Durango, with four people missing in Sinaloa. Mesa de Pedro Pablo recorded 14.09 inches of rain, and mudslides forced 400 people from two coastal villages in Jalisco. Moisture from Rosa helped fuel record rains in southeastern Texas from 15 to 19 October; the resulting floods killed 22 people and caused $700 million in damage, in 1994 US dollars.

The archive's year ended in late October with two weak storms near the Date Line. Tropical Storm Nona reached 35 kt on 25 October and fell apart the next day, and Tropical Storm Yuri's tropical stage ended on 26 October.