Hurricane Adrian

Eastern North Pacifi c Ocean–Central America, May 15–23, 2005 

The first tropical cyclone of the 2005 eastern North Pacific Ocean hurricane season, and the first tropical cyclone to have made a recorded landfall on the western coast of Honduras, Hurricane Adrian destroyed roads, spawned flash floods and landslides, uprooted trees, downed power lines, and forced the evacuation of some 14,000 people as it trundled ashore near the Gulf of Fonseca on May 19, 2005.

A weak Category 1 hurricane with a central barometric pressure of 28.99 inches (982 mb) that had been downgraded to a tropical depression by the time it made landfall, Adrian nevertheless delivered sustained winds of 40 MPH (65 km/h) to the coastal town of Acajutla, located approximately 35 miles (55 km) west of the El Salvadoran capital of San Salvador. Adrian’s high winds churned across Central America at 12 MPH (19 km/h), killing an El Salvadoran military pilot whose aircraft crashed as it was being moved from Adrian’s path, while another two people in neighboring Guatemala perished in a mudslide caused by Adrian’s drenching rains. 

On May 20, Adrian disintegrated over Central America before its remnants reached the Caribbean Sea. On June 21, 1999, the western Mexican states of Coahuila and Colima were inundated by the outer rain bands associated with an earlier Hurricane Adrian. Formed near the Gulf of Tehuantepec, approximately 240 miles (386 km) southeast of Acapulco, Mexico, during the early morning hours of June 18, the system was upgraded to tropical storm intensity later the same day, and to hurricane status on June 20. Then located approximately 430 miles (692 km) south-southeast of Baja, California,

Adrian’s minimum central pressure of 28.73 inches (973 mb) produced sustained winds of 98 MPH (158 km/h) and heavy seas. Upon interacting with lower sea-surface temperatures and southeasterly wind shear, Adrian quickly weakened, returning to tropical storm status on June 21, and almost completely dissipating by the early evening hours on June 22. Although Adrian remained an offshore system for its entire lifespan, it was responsible for at least six deaths, including four people who drowned after being swept from a beach in Chiapas by a large wave generated by Tropical Depression Adrian on June 18; and another three people who died elsewhere in Mexico from riverbank flooding associated with Adrian’s large rainfalls. The name Adrian has been retained on the rotating naming lists for eastern North Pacific tropical cyclones.