The 1983 Pacific hurricane season officially started June 1, 1983, and lasted until November 30, 1983. These dates conventionally delimit the period of each year when most tropical cyclones form in the northeastern Pacific Ocean.
This season, there were a record-setting 21 named storms this year. Of those storms, twelve became hurricanes. Eight hurricanes reached Category 3 or higher on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale. No named storms formed in the central Pacific; however, there were two tropical depressions. A strong El Niño contributed to this level of activity. That same El Niño influenced a very quiet season in the Atlantic.
The most notable storms were Hurricane Tico, Tropical Storm Octave, and Hurricane Winnie. Hurricane Tico left thousands homeless in Mazatlán; Tropical Storm Octave killed several people in one of Arizona's worst disasters; and Hurricane Winnie was a rare December cyclone.
Read more about 1983 Pacific Hurricane Season: 1983 Storm Names
Famous quotes containing the words pacific, hurricane and/or season:
“The doctor of Geneva stamped the sand
That lay impounding the Pacific swell,
Patted his stove-pipe hat and tugged his shawl.”
—Wallace Stevens (1879–1955)
“Staid middle age loves the hurricane passions of opera.”
—Mason Cooley (b. 1927)
“At this season I seldom had a visitor. When the snow lay deepest no wanderer ventured near my house for a week or fortnight at a time, but there I lived as snug as a meadow mouse.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)