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ABSTRACT
The 2002 eastern North Pacific hurricane season is summarized and the year's tropical cyclones are described. The season featured 12 named tropical storms, of which 6 became hurricanes. Five of the six hurricanes reached an intensity of 100 kt or higher. There were two landfalling cyclones, Tropical Storm Julio and Hurricane Kenna. Kenna, which made landfall near San Blas, Mexico, with winds of near 120 kt, was responsible for four deaths.
1. Overview
Tropical cyclone activity in the eastern North Pacific hurricane basin (the area north of the equator between the American continents and 140[degrees]W longitude) was below average in the year 2002. There were 12 cyclones of at least tropical storm strength (Table 1, Fig. 1). Of these, six became hurricanes. The mean seasonal totals for the period 1966-2002 were 15 named storms and eight hurricanes. Although the total of six hurricanes was below normal, there were five "major" hurricanes, one above the long-term average [a major hurricane has maximum 1-min average winds greater than 96 kt (1 kt = 0.5144 m s^sup -1^), corresponding to category 3 or higher on the Saffir-Simpson hurricane scale (Saffir 1973; Simpson 1974)]. Overall activity was fairly evenly distributed over the 15 May-30 November season, with tropical cyclones forming in each month. The longest interval without a tropical cyclone was 25 days, from 27 September to 21 October. Kenna was the strongest hurricane of the season, with peak winds of 145 kt. In addition to the 12 named tropical cyclones in 2002, there were four depressions that did not reach tropical storm strength.
Eastern North Pacific tropical cyclones were directly responsible for four deaths in 2002; these resulted from Hurricane Kenna, which made landfall north of Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, near San Blas in late October. Tropical Storm Julio also made landfall in Mexico, and rains from Tropical Storm Boris caused damage even though the center of the cyclone remained offshore.
Hovmoller diagrams of twice-daily satellite images can be extremely useful in identifying the mode of tropical cyclogenesis in the eastern North Pacific. A recent illustrative example and discussion is provided by Avila et al. (2003). These diagrams reveal that the genesis of half of the named storms in 2002 (Alma, Douglas, Elida, Fausto, Genevieve, and Iselle)...