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Hurricane Ismael of the 1995 Pacific hurricane season was a Category 1 hurricane that caused tragic loss of life in Northern Mexico.
Storm History
Tropical Depression Ten-E formed September 12 from an area of disturbed weather located south of Guatemala. Banding increased, and the depression was upgraded to a tropical storm on September 13.
It moved to the northwest, and strengthened into a hurricane on September 14 while south of Baja California. Ismael's forward speed increased to 26 km/h as a trough pulled it forward and curved it to the north. The hurricane peaked at 983 millibars and 80 mph (130 km/h).
Ismael brushed the southern tip of Baja California and entered the Gulf of California and made landfall near Topolobampo early on September 15. Land quickly weakened Ismael, and the cyclone emerged as a weak low pressure area that streaked east-northeast across the southern Plains and Mid-Atlantic along a very weak frontal zone. Moisture from the hurricane eventually spread over the Southwestern United States.
Impact
Ismael killed 105 people around the Gulf of California, with several more missing. Many of dead were aboard fishing boats caught in heavy seas from the storm. This made Ismael the fifth deadliest Pacific hurricane at the time. It remains the sixth-deadliest as of 2005, as Pauline overtook it in 1997.
Thousands of people were left homeless. Roughly 5000 "rickety houses" were destroyed. Damage was especially severe in Topolobampo. In Los Mochis, telephone poles and houses were downed by the storm.
Retirement
The name Ismael was retired after this season, and was replaced by Israel. While Israel may well be a perfectly acceptable Spanish name, giving a potentially destructive tropical cyclone the same name as a country was considered to be politically insensitive. For this reason, Israel was changed to Ivo during the 2001 Pacific hurricane season.Trivia
The fact that the replacement name was changed due to it being the same name as a country resulted in the representative from France on the WMO's hurricane committee requesting that the name "Frances" be changed.The committee agreed to change the name after the 2004 Atlantic season,[http://66.102.7.104/search?q=cache:U9rZGT1d558J:www.wmo.int/web/www/TCP/Reports/HC-25FinalReport-eng.pdf+%22World+Meteorological+Organization%22+%2B%22hurricane+committee%22+%2B2002&hl=en but this became a moot point when Hurricane Frances became a highly destructive storm that had its name retired in any case. It also decided that it was not going to respond to every request to change (rather than retire) a name, and therefore decided to keep the name "Omar" on the list.
See also
External links
Pacific hurricanes | Category 1 hurricanes | 1995 Pacific hurricane season | Retired Pacific hurricanes | 1995 in Mexico | Hurricanes in Mexico
"Hurricane Ismael"