Hurricane Nora was the fourteenth named tropical cyclone and seventh hurricane of the 1997 Pacific hurricane season, and only the third tropical storm on record to reach Arizona. Forming on September 16 off the Pacific coast of Mexico, the storm was aided by waters warmed by El Niño, and eventually peaked at Category 4 intensity on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale. It made its first landfall as a hurricane in central Baja California; later the same day, it became one of the few hurricanes to make a landfall in northern Baja. The storm was blamed for two direct casualties in Mexico, as well as substantial beach erosion on the Mexican coast and flash flooding in Baja. Although Nora weakened quickly after landfall, its remnants lashed the Southwestern United States with tropical-storm-force winds, torrential rain, and flooding. Arizona received record precipitation. The remnants persisted far inland, dissipating near the Arizona–Nevada border, although near-hurricane-force winds were observed as far north as Cedar City, Utah. (Full article...)