1998 Pacific hurricane season

Fewer storms, more major hurricanes

The current best-track count matches the site's: 13 named storms, slightly below the average of 15, but nine hurricanes and six major hurricanes, both above average. A northward shift of the Intertropical Convergence Zone into Central and southern Mexico kept the storm count low by placing developing systems nearer cooler water. Accumulated cyclone energy came to 134 in the site's calculation, near normal because several storms were long-lived and intense; Howard alone contributed about 29 units by the best-track figures.

The Central Pacific Hurricane Center recorded near or slightly below normal sea surface temperatures, with negative anomalies of 1 to 2 °C near the equator after the 1997 El Niño faded. Only three tropical cyclones reached its area, a hurricane and two depressions between 28 July and 18 August, against a 37-year average of 4.5 and nine the year before. The first depression of the eastern Pacific season formed on 11 June, and the last storm, Lester, ended on 26 October.

Five major hurricanes over open water

Tropical Storm Agatha opened the season, peaking at 55 kt on 14 June without affecting land. Blas followed from an African wave, tracking 250 to 300 n mi off the Mexican coast and peaking at 120 kt on 25 June. The Associated Press attributed four deaths in Michoacán to Blas when a hillslide buried a home in El Chaparro on 23 June, but the NHC did not count them as direct deaths because the storm's center and main cloud shield were more than 250 n mi offshore at the time.

Darby reached 100 kt on 25 and 26 July, went through an eyewall replacement and crossed 140°W as a 65 kt hurricane on 28 July. The CPHC notes that it was the first eastern Pacific cyclone to enter the central Pacific as a hurricane since Kristy in 1994, though it weakened to a tropical storm six hours later and dissipated about 300 miles north-northeast of the Big Island. Estelle peaked at 115 kt on 2 August and Georgette at 100 kt on 14 August, both far offshore.

Howard, the strongest storm of the year, formed on 20 August about 345 miles south of Puerto Ángel and reached 130 kt and 932 mb near 0000 UTC on 23 August, about 525 n mi from the coast. In the days that followed it showed a broad, symmetric eye about 30 miles wide, the structure of an annular hurricane, which Darby had also shown. Howard regained Category 4 strength on 25 August and weakened over cooler water before dissipating on 30 August. The NHC received no reports of casualties or damage.

Frank and Isis in the Gulf of California

Tropical Storm Frank moved north toward Baja California in early August and peaked at 40 kt on 9 August. The NHC recorded bands of heavy showers and gusty winds over the Gulf of California and moisture reaching the southwestern United States, with no reports of casualties. People evacuated near Cabo San Lucas, Santa Anita measured 9.61 inches of rain, and one news agency attributed three deaths to the storm.

Isis grew from a large low-level circulation southwest of Mexico and became a tropical depression on 1 September, just under 300 n mi south of Cabo San Lucas. A trough to the north steered it north at about 10 kt. Its center crossed extreme southeastern Baja California at 1200 UTC on 2 September, and the storm strengthened to a 65 kt hurricane over the Gulf of California before making its final landfall at Topolobampo, near Los Mochis, around 0300 UTC on 3 September at about that strength. Mexico told the World Meteorological Organization that Isis caused 14 deaths and destroyed 769 houses. Most of the harm came from more than 20 inches of rain in southern Baja California Sur, which washed out roads and rail lines.

Tropical Storm Javier formed from the southern part of the wave that produced Atlantic Hurricane Danielle and peaked at 50 kt on 8 September under easterly shear. The NHC knew of no damage or casualties. Puerto Vallarta measured 17.33 inches of rain.

An October finish from Guatemala to Texas

Kay formed on 13 October and briefly reached 65 kt around a pinhole eye before weakening. Lester formed on 15 October about 175 n mi south of the Guatemala coast and tracked parallel to the Mexican shoreline for days, a path the NHC noted closely mirrored the coastline's shape. It reached 100 kt on 22 October and ended on 26 October without making landfall. The NHC received no casualty reports; about 3,000 people evacuated in southern Mexico, and a mudslide in southwestern Guatemala killed two children.

Hurricane Madeline formed on 16 October about 150 n mi southwest of Cabo Corrientes and peaked at 75 kt on 18 October. Its center never crossed the Mexican coast, and the NHC received no reports of casualties or damage from Mexico. Madeline's moisture fed heavy flooding in southeastern Texas later that month, where more than 22 inches of rain fell, 31 people died and damage reached $750 million in 1998 dollars; those figures describe the whole flood event, which Madeline contributed to.