# Hurricane reaching Pacific Ocean **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 21, 2007, 1:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hurricane-reaching-pacific-ocean/416355 "2007-08-21T13:06:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Slypork](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9fc29f/32.png) [@Slypork](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slypork)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2007, 1:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hurricane-reaching-pacific-ocean/416355/1 "2007-08-21T13:06:07Z")
While watching the tracking of Hurricane Dean we saw it pop up to Category 5 and then drop back to Category 3 when it hit the beach in Mexico. I looked at the NOAA site and saw that a few hurricanes over the years have managed to cross over into the Pacific. Is it possible for a hurricane that made the successful transition to the Pacific to regain any of its strength? I am talking about according to our current climate, not some future global warming climate. ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2007, 1:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hurricane-reaching-pacific-ocean/416355/2 "2007-08-21T13:26:19Z")
The only places where that would be likely to occur is if the hurricane crossed the Central American isthmus at one of the three routes of sufficiently low elevation to not break it up completely: 1. The Isthmus of Tehuantepec, where the Mexican states of Oaxaca, Chiapas, Tabasco, and Veracruz meet. 2. Panama, especially near the canal (duh!) 3. Southern Nicaragua Of these, only southern Nicaragua is oriented east-west, and so is the only likely candidate for such an event. It is the longest distance of the three options, however, so it would have to be a particularly fast-moving and large hurricane – one like Dean, actually. I’ll leave it to someone else to look up if this has actually ever been documented as occurring. I’d be surpised if it didn’t happen at least once a century or so. ---
**Author:** ![Slypork](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9fc29f/32.png) [@Slypork](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slypork)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2007, 1:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hurricane-reaching-pacific-ocean/416355/3 "2007-08-21T13:36:21Z")
[QUOTE=JKellyMap] The only places where that would be likely to occur is if the hurricane crossed the Central American isthmus at one of the three routes of sufficiently low elevation to not break it up completely: 1. The Isthmus of Tehuantepec, where the Mexican states of Oaxaca, Chiapas, Tabasco, and Veracruz meet. 2. Panama, especially near the canal (duh!) 3. Southern Nicaragua Of these, only southern Nicaragua is oriented east-west, and so is the only likely candidate for such an event. It is the longest distance of the three options, however, so it would have to be a particularly fast-moving and large hurricane – one like Dean, actually. I’ll leave it to someone else to look up if this has actually ever been documented as occurring. I’d be surpised if it didn’t happen at least once a century or so. [/QUOTE] According to NOAA there have been a few from the late 1800’s and early 1900’s that made it to the Pacific. I’m just wondering if it is possible for them to regain their strength, essentially build back up from a 3 to a 5. ---
**Author:** ![SanibelMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e4f/32.png) [@SanibelMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SanibelMan)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2007, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hurricane-reaching-pacific-ocean/416355/4 "2007-08-21T16:12:20Z")
From meteorolgist and former hurricane hunter Dr. Jeff Masters’ blog on [Weather Underground:](http://www.wunderground.com/blog/JeffMasters/comment.html?entrynum=761&tstamp=200708) > [@](#): > > Dean is powerful enough to survive the crossing of the Yucatan as a hurricane, and I expect it will be a Category 2 hurricane with 100 mph winds when it pops out into the Gulf of Mexico later today. Hurricane Janet of 1955, which hit near Chetumal as a Category 5 storm with 170 mph winds, weakened to a Category 2 storm with 105 mph winds when it popped out into the Gulf of Mexico south of Campeche. Janet was moving at about the same speed Dean is, so I expect Dean will behave similarly. Once out over the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico, Dean has time to intensify by perhaps 15 mph before it makes a second landfall near Poza Rica. **Dean will finally dissipate in the mountains about 100 miles north of Mexico City, and could bring heavy rains to the Mexican capital. No hurricane has ever survived the crossing from the Gulf of Mexico to the Pacific over the wide, mountainous portion of Mexico.** (My emphasis) ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2007, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hurricane-reaching-pacific-ocean/416355/5 "2007-08-21T20:19:53Z")
> [@](#): > > No hurricane has ever survived the crossing from the Gulf of Mexico to the Pacific over the wide, mountainous portion of Mexico. But that doesn’t say anything about crossing in the flatter parts of Mexico, or in other regions of Central America. ---
**Author:** ![Hypnagogic\_Jerk](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hypnagogic_jerk/32/4252_2.png) [@Hypnagogic\_Jerk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hypnagogic_Jerk)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2007, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hurricane-reaching-pacific-ocean/416355/6 "2007-08-21T21:02:46Z")
It is possible for a hurricane to cross from the Atlantic into the Pacific and regain its strength, or become stronger than it was. Looking on Wikipedia, [here is an example](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Cesar-Douglas) from 1996. You may also check the [list of Atlantic-Pacific crossover storms](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_notable_Atlantic_hurricanes#Atlantic-Eastern_Pacific_crossover_storms). ---
**Author:** ![Bridget\_Burke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7cd45c/32.png) [@Bridget\_Burke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bridget_Burke)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2007, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hurricane-reaching-pacific-ocean/416355/7 "2007-08-21T21:06:45Z")
[QUOTE=Chronos] But that doesn’t say anything about crossing in the flatter parts of Mexico, or in other regions of Central America. [/QUOTE] Yucatan is the flattest part of Mexico. If you cross the Gulf & keep going West, you _will_ encounter [mountains](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Mexfromspace.PNG). And that same rocky spine continues south through Central America. ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2007, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hurricane-reaching-pacific-ocean/416355/8 "2007-08-21T22:08:09Z")
[QUOTE=Bridget Burke] Yucatan is the flattest part of Mexico. If you cross the Gulf & keep going West, you _will_ encounter [mountains](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Mexfromspace.PNG). And that same rocky spine continues south through Central America. [/QUOTE] Well, it has its flatter sections – see my first post above. Indeed, **severus** ’ first linked example from the post immediately above yours, shows Hurrican Cesar (a.k.a. Douglas), which follows the exact route I had predicted: across southern Nicaragua.