The 2003 Pacific hurricane season produced an unusually large number of tropical cyclones which affected Mexico. The most notable cyclones during the year were Hurricanes Ignacio and Marty, which killed 2 and 12 people in Mexico, respectively, and were collectively responsible for about $1 billion (2003 US$) in damage. Three other Pacific storms, two of which were hurricanes, and three Atlantic storms also had a direct impact on Mexico. The only other significant storm of the season was Hurricane Jimena, which passed just to the south of Hawaii, the first storm to directly threaten Hawaii for several years.
The season officially started on May 15, 2003 in the eastern Pacific, and on June 1, 2003 in the central Pacific, and lasted until November 30, 2003. These dates conventionally delimit the period of each year when most tropical cyclones form in the northeastern Pacific Ocean. The season saw 16 tropical storms form, of which 7 became hurricanes, which is about average. However, this season was the first Pacific hurricane season since 1977 to have no systems become major hurricanes by reaching Category 3 or higher on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale.
Read more about 2003 Pacific Hurricane Season: Season Summary, Storm Names
Famous quotes containing the words pacific, hurricane and/or season:
“I need not tell you of the inadequacy of the American shipping marine on the Pacific Coast.... For this reason it seems to me that there is no subject to which Congress can better devote its attention in the coming session than the passage of a bill which shall encourage our merchant marine in such a way as to establish American lines directly between New York and the eastern ports and South American ports, and both our Pacific Coast ports and the Orient and the Philippines.”
—William Howard Taft (1857–1930)
“Staid middle age loves the hurricane passions of opera.”
—Mason Cooley (b. 1927)
“Much poetry seems to be aware of its situation in time and of its relation to the metronome, the clock, and the calendar. ... The season or month is there to be felt; the day is there to be seized. Poems beginning “When” are much more numerous than those beginning “Where” of “If.” As the meter is running, the recurrent message tapped out by the passing of measured time is mortality.”
—William Harmon (b. 1938)