Baja California Battered And Drenched By Odile
Category three hurricane Odile caused widespread destruction after hitting Baja California on Sunday night. Odile had weakened to a tropical storm with winds of about 55 kts ( 63.3 mph) when the TRMM satellite flew over on September 16, 2014 at 0917 UTC (2:19 AM PDT). Odile was still well organized and TRMM's Precipitation Radar (PR) measured rain falling at a rate of almost 130 mm (5.1 inches) per hour northeast of the tropical storms's center of circulation. The tops of some strong thunderstorms over the Gulf Of California were reaching heights of 13km (8 miles) and returning radar reflectivity values of over 51.8 dBZ to the satellite.
The National Hurricane Center (NHC) predicts that Odile will continue to produce heavy rainfall over the Baja California Peninsula for the next few days.
Moisture from hurricane Norbert caused heavy rain and flooding over the southwestern United States last week. Odile is expected to cause similar problems over the Southwest as the tropical cyclone's remnants move in that direction over the next few days.