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Hurricane Dolores Recap

Hurricane Dolores was an Eastern Pacific tropical cyclone that brought peripheral effects to the U.S. and Mexico despite never making landfall during its weeklong journey.

Dolores formed as a tropical depression on Saturday morning, July 11, 2015. It became a tropical storm early July 12 and a hurricane July 13. Dolores rapidly intensified to a Category 4 hurricane overnight Tuesday night, July 14.

Sustained winds of 80 mph with gusts to 114 mph were measured by automated equipment on Socorro Island, a small volcanic island under Mexican jurisdiction late Wednesday night, July 15, as the eye of Dolores passed nearby.

Mexico's mainland also felt some peripheral effects as outer rainbands occasionally reached the coast.

Dolores curved toward the north-northeast and began to weaken. It became a tropical storm on Friday morning, July 17, and degenerated into a post-tropical low-pressure center about 300 miles west of the Baja California coast on Saturday evening, July 18.

On a broader scale, the wind flow around Dolores pulled rich tropical moisture northwestward into the U.S. Desert Southwest, setting the stage for torrential rainfall and helping Los Angeles and San Diego to break their all-time July rainfall records on Saturday, July 18.

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