2008 Pacific hurricane season

2008 Pacific hurricane season
Season summary map
Seasonal boundaries
First system formed	May 29, 2008
Last system dissipated	November 5, 2008
Strongest storm
Name	Norbert
• Maximum winds	130 mph (215 km/h) (1-minute sustained)
• Lowest pressure	945 mbar (hPa; 27.91 inHg)
Seasonal statistics
Total depressions	19
Total storms	17
Hurricanes	7
Major hurricanes (Cat. 3+)	2
Total fatalities	46 total
Total damage	$152.2 million (2008 USD)
Related articles
2008 Atlantic hurricane season 2008 Pacific typhoon season 2008 North Indian Ocean cyclone season
Pacific hurricane seasons 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010

The 2008 Pacific hurricane season was a near-average Pacific hurricane season which featured seventeen named storms, though most were rather weak and short-lived. Only seven storms became hurricanes, of which two intensified into major hurricanes. This season was also the first since 1996 to have no cyclones cross into the central Pacific (between 140°W to the International Date Line).^[1] The season officially began on May 15 in the eastern Pacific (east of 140°W) and on June 1 in the central Pacific. It ended in both regions on November 30. These dates, adopted by convention, historically describe the period in each year when most tropical cyclone formation occurs in these regions of the Pacific. This season, the first system, Tropical Storm Alma, formed on May 29, and the last, Tropical Storm Polo, dissipated on November 5.

During the season, 4 eastern Pacific systems (Julio, Karina, Lowell, and Marie) developed, at least in part, from tropical waves that had already produced named storms in the Atlantic basin.^[2] Several storms affected land this year. Alma made landfall along the Pacific coast of Nicaragua, becoming the first known storm to do so. It killed 9 and caused over US$35 million in damage (value in 2008). Hurricane Norbert became the strongest hurricane to hit the western side of the Baja Peninsula on record, killing 25 and causing widespread damage over Baja California Sur, Sonora, and Sinaloa in Mexico. Tropical Depression Five-E made landfall along the south-western Mexican coastline in July 2008, producing heavy rainfall in parts of southwestern Mexico, which these rains triggered flooding that killed two people and left roughly $2.2 million in damages. Julio produced lightning and locally heavy rainfall, which left more than a dozen communities isolated due to flooding. The flooding damaged several houses and killed two people. Lowell left $15.5 million in damage as it made landfall in Baja California Peninsula as a tropical depression, and affected parts of West Coast and the Gulf Coast. Odile dumped squally rainfall on Central America as a tropical wave, while it brought heavy rainfall across southern Mexico.