2000 Pacific hurricane season

Busy in number, modest in strength

By storm count the season ran a little ahead of normal, but most of its systems were weak and brief. The National Hurricane Center named 17 storms east of 140°W, above the then 34-year average of 15.4, yet only six became hurricanes against an average of 8.6. West of 140°W, the Central Pacific Hurricane Center tracked four systems, close to its 38-year average of 4.5, and gave Hawaiian names to two of them.

The climate backdrop was a weak La Niña, with equatorial sea surface temperatures in the central and eastern Pacific running between 0 and 1°C below normal. The site's archive puts the season's accumulated cyclone energy, a measure combining strength and duration, at 95.4; Colorado State University's figure from the NHC best track is 96. The small difference reflects the archive's calendar-year, tropical-stage method and its slightly different set of storms.

Counts differ by definition too. Official tallies reach 19 named storms by combining the 17 NHC names with the two central Pacific names, Upana and Wene. The site's archive also counts 19 tropical storms, but from a different list: it includes Tropical Storm Chanchu, which developed from Upana's remnants as it neared the International Date Line, and leaves out Wene, which formed west of the date line before crossing east. Both approaches arrive at 6 hurricanes and 2 major hurricanes.

How the season unfolded

Hurricane Aletta opened the season on 22 May south of Acapulco, well ahead of the average first tropical storm formation on 10 June. It reached 90 kt on 24 May, which NHC ranked as the second-strongest May hurricane on record in the basin, then stalled for more than two days and weakened over water it had cooled by 1 to 2°C. June brought Tropical Storm Bud near Socorro Island and then Hurricane Carlotta, the strongest storm of the year.

July was busier. Two short-lived tropical depressions formed off Mexico, Tropical Storm Upana became the first tropical storm to develop in the central Pacific since 1997, and Hurricane Daniel began a track of nearly two weeks that carried it past Hawaii, the longest in the season's archive. Tropical Storm Emilia peaked at 55 kt near Socorro Island late in the month.

August produced six tropical storms, the most of any month. Hurricane Gilma and Hurricane Hector each peaked at 70 kt well off southwestern Mexico, Tropical Storm Fabio was sheared apart near Gilma, and Tropical Storm Ileana skirted the southern tip of Baja California. Tropical Storm Wene crossed into the central Pacific from the west in mid-August at an unusually high latitude near 33°N, and Tropical Storm John reached 60 kt as it drifted across 140°W at the end of the month.

Activity thinned out from September. Hurricane Lane, the last hurricane, traced a rare loop off Mexico before passing over Socorro Island, and Tropical Storm Miriam and Tropical Storm Norman soaked western Mexico. October brought Tropical Storm Olivia, whose strength rose and fell with the outflow of Atlantic Hurricane Keith, and Tropical Storm Paul. Tropical Storm Rosa, the first November storm in the basin since 1997, ended the season when it came ashore near Huatulco on 8 November.

Carlotta and Daniel

Hurricane Carlotta formed south of the Gulf of Tehuantepec on 18 June and ran parallel to the Mexican coast, coming within about 120 n mi of land. After becoming a hurricane south of Acapulco on 20 June, it intensified dramatically, peaking at 135 kt and 932 hPa at 06:00 UTC on 21 June. NHC ranked it the second-strongest June hurricane in the east Pacific record since 1966, behind Ava in 1973. It weakened over cooler water and dissipated west of Cabo San Lucas on 25 June.

Carlotta's peak was hard to pin down. An Air Force Reserve reconnaissance flight on 20 June found the storm far weaker than satellite estimates suggested, by about 20 hPa and 15 to 20 kt, while also measuring rapid deepening. Satellite analysis then showed strengthening for several more hours after the aircraft left. NHC adjusted for the satellite bias to reach 135 kt and described the 932 hPa minimum pressure as probably a lower bound on the true value.

Hurricane Daniel, the only other major hurricane, formed south of Mexico on 23 July and peaked at 110 kt on 25 July at 954 hPa, maintaining that strength into the next day. It crossed 140°W on 28 July as a weakening hurricane, the only hurricane of the year in the central Pacific, and stayed a tropical cyclone until 5 August, when it dissipated far northwest of Hawaii.

Among the weaker hurricanes, Hurricane Lane stood out for its size and path. It grew into a very large cyclone, looped between 6 and 8 September, then passed directly over Socorro Island, where a pressure of 973.7 hPa was recorded, before peaking at 85 kt with an eye 50 to 60 n mi wide. It curved north and dissipated about 250 n mi west of San Diego at 32°N, unusually far north for the basin.

Landfalls and impacts

The deadliest event of the season happened at sea. The Lithuanian freighter MV Linkuva, bound for Long Beach, California, lost its engine and was caught in Hurricane Carlotta about 220 miles southwest of Acapulco late on 20 June. Contact was lost as the hurricane intensified rapidly, and the ship sank with all 18 of its crew. NHC received no other reports of damage or casualties from Carlotta, which never made landfall.

Hurricane Daniel was the season's greatest threat to Hawaii. Forecasts showed it crossing the islands as a tropical storm, and the Central Pacific Hurricane Center issued tropical storm warnings for Maui County, the island of Hawaii and later Oahu. Daniel instead turned northwest and passed about 120 n mi north of the chain, bringing surf up to 10 ft on the eastern side of the island of Hawaii and thunderstorms over Hawaii and Maui without significant flooding.

Tropical Storm Norman made the season's strongest landfall on mainland Mexico, coming ashore west of Lázaro Cárdenas at 45 kt on 20 September and again near Mazatlán as a depression on 22 September. Official Mexican reports cited by NHC gave up to 14.0 inches of rain at Callejones, Colima. NHC received no reports of deaths or damage, but the season article, drawing on later Mexican reports, attributes nine deaths to floods and mudslides and puts damage at the port of Lázaro Cárdenas at MX$180 million (US$18.8 million in 2000).

The other storms that reached Mexico were weak. Tropical Storm Miriam, which NHC considered possibly never a true tropical storm, brought heavy rain to western Mexico and caused about US$22,000 (MX$205,000, 2000) of damage in Baja California Sur. Tropical Storm Rosa hit near Huatulco with winds near 35 kt; NHC received no damage reports, while the season article lists US$15,000 (2000) of damage in Oaxaca.

Several storms did more harm as remnants than as tropical cyclones. The remnants of Hurricane Hector brought flooding that severely damaged eight homes in Waikele on Oahu in August. Moisture from Hurricane Lane fed thunderstorms in California, and the remnant low of Tropical Storm Olivia brought flash flooding to the desert Southwest, with about US$30,000 (2000) of damage in southern Arizona.

The costliest impact came weeks after Tropical Storm Paul dissipated over open water in late October. Its remnants met an upper-level low near Hawaii, and in early November Kapapala Ranch near Pāhala recorded 38.97 inches of rain, including 37.02 inches in 24 hours, the highest 24-hour total for the island. Floods and landslides damaged seven bridges, prompting a presidential disaster declaration, and damage on the island of Hawaii reached US$88.2 million (2000, unadjusted). NHC's report covers only Paul's time as a tropical cyclone, when there were no reports of death or damage.

Names

The eastern Pacific names came from the list last used in 1994, running from Aletta to Rosa. No names were retired after the season, so the list returned in 2006. The two central Pacific names were Hawaiian: Upana, meaning Urban, and Wene, meaning Wayne, the latter given because the storm reached tropical storm strength only after crossing into the central Pacific.